necessityfor

Necessityfor is a neologism used to describe a dependency relation whereby a factor or condition is necessary for a specified outcome or function to be realized. Formally, C is a necessityfor O if O cannot occur without C, although C alone may not guarantee O. It is distinct from sufficiency, which would imply that C alone guarantees O.

The term blends necessity and for and has appeared in informal philosophy, systems design, and cognitive science discussions since the mid-2010s. It is commonly used in informal notation or prose and has not achieved widespread adoption as a standard term in major scholarly journals.

In usage, necessityfor clarifies what preconditions must be present for a outcome to be possible. It is often employed when describing design constraints, software requirements, or functional dependencies, where identifying necessityfor relations helps separate required elements from optional components. In analysis, distinguishing necessityfor from other dependency notions helps avoid conflating what is merely helpful with what is indispensable.

Examples include statements like: "A stable power supply is a necessityfor continuous operation," or "User authentication is a necessityfor securing access to the system." In research or critique, authors may specify that a certain prerequisite is a necessityfor testing a hypothesis or implementing a feature.

See also: necessity, sufficiency, precondition, enabling condition, requisite.