What is "metaphysical contingency"?

KantDane21

I have always thought is something is metaphysically contingent is simply means that something, a state of affairs, MAY be the case. Tomorrow I may stub my foot on a nail and feel pain. This happening is metaphysically contingent. It is not a fortiori possible.
However, I am reading (or attempting to) read a paper by Braddon-Mitchel now, and he talks of "no-futurism", "eternalism" and all these other concepts in relation to metaphysical contingency, and, to be frank, I am confused.

Jackson

↪KantDane21

If you post a specific text then others might be able to comment.

KantDane21

↪Jackson

cheers, this one here: David Baddon-Mitchell, David. 2004. « How do we know it is now now? » Analysis 64 (283): 199–203....
it is one of the key concepts he frequently refers to... thanks!

Agent Smith

Metaphysically contingent: Dependent on metaphysical concepts/entities for some property/quality/feature in part/as a whole.

Murder, essentially a causal argument, is metaphysically contingent on causality.

My two cents!

jgill

The word metaphysical itself is ill-defined. This is a step further into the void.

Agent Smith

The word metaphysical itself is ill-defined. This is a step further into the void. — jgill

:snicker:

Cuthbert

How do we know it is now now? — KantDane21

Because when you misbehave in class the teacher says: "Now, now!" It's a simple matter of classroom discipline. Some teachers say "Now, then!", but their theory is quite incoherent in my view.

Relativist

I have always thought is something is metaphysically contingent is simply means that something, a state of affairs, MAY be the case. — KantDane21

That's right. More precisely: x is metahysically contingent = possibly*(x) &possibly*(~x)

*referring to metaphysical possibility = actual possibility, not merely epistemically possible or conceptually possible

Tomorrow I may stub my foot on a nail and feel pain.

It depends: does the universe evolve deterministically? If yes, then there is exactly one metaphysically possible outcome. We're ignorant of the future, so we don't know which, but this entails epistemic possibility, not metaphysical possibility.

charles ferraro

↪KantDane21

Absent a Deus ex machina, personal existence is experientially contingent because it does not have to be.

Banno

Because when you misbehave in class the teacher says: "Now, now!" It's a simple matter of classroom discipline. Some teachers say "Now, then!", but their theory is quite incoherent in my view. — Cuthbert

That sort of argument is for recalcitrants. Before then, an effective teacher will have used The Eye. Under that unyielding gaze the more amenable students will develop an effective understanding of both The Now and The Other.

magritte

↪KantDane21

D.B-M said,

I argue that on the growing salami view, it is almost certainly not
now. It is not now now; or less tendentiously, the current time is probably
not the present

magritte

The word metaphysical itself is ill-defined. This is a step further into the void. — jgill

It is. But that's the fault of people who insist on using ill-defined fundamental concepts in a perverse manner to confuse themselves.

What is "metaphysical contingency"?

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