It is a synonimous of discussion or argument. It is very spoken in latin languages.

Hope it helps.

Just a suggestion. Contingency normally deals with uncertainties, of preparing for emergencies, or the 'what if' situations.

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Note added at 2002-10-17 19:03:04 (GMT)
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Contrast: Science is precise.

A contingent event is one that depends on certain conditions being met, conditions that are not logically and necessarily in place.

HTH a little.

Philosphers of history have always had this debate: Is history the inexorable unfolding of fixed laws, and therefore essentially predictable, given full knowledge of data, or are there elements in history (such as intentionality) that make such predictability essentially impossible?

Take a look at this page:

http://www.hollmij.nl/Wet-Kornet.htm


Fuad

My apologies to Laura for posting a non-answer to her question, but I really feel that I have to respond to some of the remarks that were directed at me.

Here goes -

Crumpler - while I admit I find it rather refreshing to be addressed as Miss Goldian, after 15 years of marriage to Mr. Goldian plus three daughters, you might want to consider the use of Ms next time you address a woman. Just a suggestion, of course.

My next comment is for Fuad - Hmmmm...I don't quite know where to start...OK, first of all, English monolingual is not a language pair, as I'm sure you know. And the answerer's answer was 100% wrong and his explanation, short though it was, made it abundantly clear that his/her English, with all due respect, is, if I am permitted to say this on Proz, not really adequate for answering English monolingual questions. Furthermore, I believe it is quite appropriate to make negative remarks about the answerer's competency when his/her answer is so totally inappropriate. WADR, your comment that about making the answerer feel unwelcome in this language "pair" is ridiculous, since the answerer does not belong in this language "pair" in the first place. I stick to my own language pair - English <> Hebrew, and I don't answer questions in Arabic, Spanish, Japanese or any other language that I have no knowledge of.

And if I'm not mistaken, it is quite inappropriate to use the comment option in order to criticise an answerer's comments. There are other, and possibly more appropriate, ways to express your views about Prozetiquette. One that comes to mind is sending critical remarks offlist, or even refraining from making them in the first place.

this discussion has, together probably with similar problems or worse, let to quite unwelcome consequences, and since I have quite a strong opinion on matters like these, I'll add my 2 cents:
it's not a matter of appropriateness, whether derogatory comments like the ones on the first answer are given, it's only a matter of personal style. And while I myself am strongly in favor of a style, where nobody needs to feel really bad (that's the one part of my message), I think that hunting down anybody just because he cultivates the classical "homo homini lupus" - style (which, after all, is common around here, just as elsewhere) is not appropriate indeed (that's the other part of my message).
Greetings,

Nikolaus

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Note added at 2002-10-21 17:49:46 (GMT) Post-grading
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or just to put it in another way:
we have no legal entitlement to all around here being softies, even if it would be nice.