Essential Contingency and Need for Cause

Among the important philosophical issues in relation to the “Causal Principle” which, to some extent, partakes of theology, in addition to its being of strong philosophical aspect, is the “yardstick of need for cause”. In this relation, four major views have been put forward which can be referred to as 1- the view of existence, 2- the view of contingence, 3- the view of essential possibility and 4- the view of existential possibility.Having studied the self–evident quality of the principle of contingent beings’ need for cause, the writer attempts to make some critical remarks on these views, explaining the philosophical foundations of a fifth view called’ the view of essential contingency’ as an alternative for the above-mentioned views. To do this, the writer explains in detail the widely accepted definitions and interpretations given for the essential contingency by the Muslim philosophers, giving some reasons for the preference of this new view over the older ones.