necessary condition

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necessary condition

a condition that is indispensable for the achievement of an objective. A necessary condition is usually contrasted with sufficient condition, which is viewed as the adequacy of a condition to achieve an objective.

For example, an increase in INVESTMENT is a necessary condition in the achievement of higher rates of ECONOMIC GROWTH, but it is not a sufficient condition to generate growth insofar as other factors, such as an increase in the LABOUR FORCE, also contribute to raising growth rates.

Collins Dictionary of Economics, 4th ed. © C. Pass, B. Lowes, L. Davies 2005

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Can such a program be used to learn more about necessary and sufficient conditions for queen-graphability, experimenting with a wide variety of real or imaginary words?

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The problem is related to a point we made earlier in distinguishing lawfully necessary and sufficient conditions from causally necessary and sufficient conditions.

Causation and the law: preemption, lawful sufficiency, and causal sufficiency

In complex instances when these necessary and sufficient conditions are combined into single event trees, the probability of the outcome can be expressed mathematically as a function of the several originating conditions.