A contingency is an event that was not foreseen.
The etymological origin of the term contingency that concerns us now is found in the Latin word “contingentia”. We can also establish that it is made up of the following elements:
• The prefix “con-“, which is used to indicate “meeting”.
• The verb “tangere”, which can be translated as “to touch”.
• The suffix “-entia”, which is equivalent to “agent quality”.
What is a contingency
Contingency usually refers to something that is likely to happen , although there is no certainty about it. Contingency, therefore, is what is possible or that which may or may not materialize.
Thus, for example, it is common for certain countries or governments to establish contingency plans to be able to deal with situations that are likely to occur. A clear example of this is that from Germany it was rumored that contingency measures were being created to deal with the possible departure of Greece from the European Union.
An Argentine organization focused on climate
We cannot forget either that in Argentina there is an organization called the Directorate of Agriculture and Climate Contingencies (DACC). It depends on the Ministry of Production, Technology and Innovation of the Government of Mendoza and has several equally significant objectives:
• Provide meteorological information so that it can be used correctly within the agricultural field, which is useful for locating and recording crops.
• Determine the damage that may be suffered due to the aforementioned meteorological conditions in agricultural spaces.
• Develop and implement contingency plans for different climatic situations.
• Offer a wide variety of services and products such as frost or hail risk maps by crop, defense programs against hail, daily weather forecast, advice to producers, agricultural solidarity fund and compensation for climatic contingencies...
Punctured a tire is a contingency.
Contingency as an event
Another way of understanding the notion of contingency is as an event whose occurrence is not foreseen. A contingency, in this sense, can be spontaneous or provoked.
Typically, when a person faces a contingency, they have to modify their expected behavior or develop a specific action, motivated by the emergence of the contingency in question. Suppose a family is traveling by car from their house to the beach and plans to arrive at their destination at 4 p.m. In the middle of the road, the car suffers a contingency: a tire gets punctured . The driver will therefore be forced to stop driving and replace the tire before continuing the trip. The planned arrival time will therefore not be met due to the contingency.
The analysis of philosophy
The idea of contingency is cause for reflection in the field of philosophy . The thinkers of this branch of science affirm that the contingent is not necessary, but it is possible . This, however, does not indicate that everything possible or everything that is not necessary is contingent.
Differentiating between contingencies and necessary things is one of the keys to philosophical reflection on the concept. The contingent, in short, is something that can be but that, at the same time, may not be .