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)
“All real freedom springs from necessity, for it can be gained only through the exercise of the individual will, and that will can be roused to energetic action only by the force of necessity acting upon it from the outside to spur it to effort.”
—Anna C. Brackett (1836–1911)