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Concept
Necessity and sufficiency
Summary
In logic and mathematics, necessity and sufficiency are terms used to describe a conditional or implicational relationship between two statements. For example, in the conditional statement: "If P then Q", Q is necessary for P, because the truth of Q is guaranteed by the truth of P. (Equivalently, it is impossible to have P without Q, or the falsity of Q ensures the falsity of P.) Similarly, P is sufficient for Q, because P being true always implies that Q is true, but P not being true does not always imply that Q is not true.
In general, a necessary condition is one (possibly one of multiple conditions) that must be present in order for another condition to occur, while a sufficient condition is one that produces the said condition. The assertion that a statement is a "necessary and sufficient" condition of another means that the former statement is true if and only if the latter is true. That is, the two statements must be either simultaneously true, or simultaneously false.
In ordinary English (also natural language) "necessary" and "sufficient" indicate relations between conditions or states of affairs, not statements. For example, being a male is a necessary condition for being a brother, but it is not sufficient—while being a male sibling is a necessary and sufficient condition for being a brother.
Any conditional statement consists of at least one sufficient condition and at least one necessary condition.
In data analytics, necessity and sufficiency can refer to different causal logics, where Necessary Condition Analysis and Qualitative Comparative Analysis can be used as analytical techniques for examining necessity and sufficiency of conditions for a particular outcome of interest.
In the conditional statement, "if S, then N", the expression represented by S is called the antecedent, and the expression represented by N is called the consequent. This conditional statement may be written in several equivalent ways, such as "N if S", "S only if N", "S implies N", "N is implied by S", S → N , S ⇒ N and "N whenever S".
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