In the tradition of Aristotelian terminological analysis, necessity (Greek anánke, Latin necessitas) as a modal category was from Greco-Roman antiquity on the opposite of contingency [9]. Necessity, then, was understood as that which either ontologically (i.e. in respect of entities like gods or nature) or logically (i.e. in respect of statements) could neither be nor be thought otherwise. In the Middle Ages, God was seen as the ens necessarium (“necessary being”). In his creation, necessity and freedom pervaded one another (Necessitas).

In the early modern period, howeve…