2. Contingency
The concept of contingency itself first appeared in Western philosophy in Plato
and Aristotle, and later on in medieval times it was fully explored in theology in
terms of God’s creation of the world.
In a sense, contingency was associated to catastrophe and accidents, which in the
Hellenic culture, lacking scientific knowledge, was opposed to the hope that the
cosmic order necessary would fix and triumph over them.
After Socrates, reason triumphed as it was the way to a better control of
“accidental contingency.” He understood reason as a dam against the unruliness of
the “Apollonian spirit,” which was the side of human and life connected to pleasure
and uncontrollable feelings and emotions.
3. Technē
With the word technē, Socrates meant it as a technique to measure what is good
and what is bad, and a way to respond to the proposal of multiplicity in the
Sophists. Martha Nussbaum, in her work, has demonstrated that Plato tried
extensively to handle the fragility of luck.
With the word science, ancient Greeks also meant τέχνη (technē). Technē allows a
method of measurement and calculation that renders all ends into
commensurable terms.
Socrates thought that with science we could measure good and bad. Morality
issues.
Technē constituted a form of measuring all things into “understandable terms.”
4. Etymology
Etymologically, the word contingency comes from the latin contingo and it
roughly means: to border on, to come in contact with; but also, to happen.
5. Attempt to control contingency
Life after Socrates has been an attempt to control the accidents of life
Nihilism sees life as an accident in itself
Christian Social Thought deals with contingency saying that there is a teleology
and a goal in life, which is the common good of the individual and his peers. Love
and compassion.
