Conceptual necessity

Conceptual necessity is a property of the certainty with which a state of affairs, as presented by a certain description, occurs:{{Cite web |title=Conceptual necessity {{!}} Semantic Scholar |url=https://www.semanticscholar.org/topic/Conceptual-necessity/2198809 |access-date=2024-12-20 |website=www.semanticscholar.org |language=en}} it occurs by conceptual necessity if and only if it occurs just by virtue of the meaning of the description. If someone is a bachelor, for instance, then he is bound to be unmarried by conceptual necessity, because the meaning of the word "bachelor" determines that he is.

Alternatively, there is metaphysical necessity, which is a certainty determined, not by the meaning of a description, but instead by facts in the world described.

Historically, Baruch Spinoza was a subscriber to this belief.{{cite web|url=http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/spinoza-modal/notes.html |title=Notes to Spinoza's Modal Metaphysics |publisher=Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy |date=2013 |accessdate=May 9, 2014}}