Conceptual Necessity

Conceptual necessity is a property of the certainty with which a state of affairs, as presented by a certain description, occurs: it occurs by conceptual necessity if and only if it occurs just by virtue of the meaning of the description. If someone is a bachelor, for instance, then he is bound to be unmarried by conceptual necessity, because the meaning of the word "bachelor" determines that he is.

Alternatively, there is metaphysical necessity, which is a certainty determined, not by the meaning of a description, but instead by facts in the world described.

Famous quotes containing the words conceptual and/or necessity:

    I philosophize from the vantage point only of our own
    provincial conceptual scheme and scientific epoch, true; but I know no better.
    Willard Van Orman Quine (b. 1908)

    A short letter to a distant friend is, in my opinion, an insult like that of a slight bow or cursory salutation—a proof of unwillingness to do much, even where there is a necessity of doing something.
    Samuel Johnson (1709–1784)