Possibility is the occasion or power for something to exist or be.
Possibility is a term that comes from the Latin possibilĭtas . The concept refers to the power , aptitude or occasion for something to be or exist , that is, for something to happen.
For example: a soccer match has three possible outcomes. The home team can win, the visiting team can win or there can be a tie. There is no other possibility. In other words, it is not possible for a match to end with a result other than one of the three mentioned.
If a man practices target shooting with a revolver, each shot he takes contemplates two great possibilities: hitting the target or missing. There are other options (that the bullet does not come out, that the revolver is not loaded) but, if the shot is fired, there are no options other than hitting the target or missing it.
The possible, in short, is that which can be or exist . It is a potentiality . The question of the possible and of being is one of the central themes of philosophy .
Possibility in philosophy
It is important to establish that within the field of philosophy there is a fairly general use of the term possibility. In this specific case we have to emphasize that it is used as a category with which we express the different changes that can occur during the development of something in question, the matter, and that will be influenced by the corresponding circumstances in which it is carried out. that.
Faced with possibility is what reality is, the category that, for its part, is used to express everything that already exists. It is also used to determine the materialization of the aforementioned possibility.
In this way, it is clear that possibility and reality are totally opposite although their common link is that both are related to the laws of society and nature itself.
The possibilities can be associated with the available options.
Options Availability
Possibilities, when they refer to options , are usually associated with freedom . The more possibilities there are, the more options or alternatives to choose from.
If a person wants to contract a cable television service and there is only one company that operates in their city, they will not have the opportunity to choose. On the other hand, if there is competition between four different companies that offer the service, the consumer will be able to choose the most convenient one according to their needs. The multiplicity of possibilities favors making the right decisions.
Expressions with the term possibility
In addition to all of the above, we cannot ignore the existence of a series of expressions or phrases that we use colloquially and that use the term possibility. Thus, on the one hand, there would be the phrase “one chance in a million” , which is used to make it clear that an event in itself is very difficult to occur.
An example of this would be the following sentence: “I have a one in a million chance of my lottery ticket winning and winning more than six million euros.”
Likewise, we cannot forget the verbal phrase “make someone possible.” It is used to express that someone is going to do everything possible to achieve something.