On Dharmakirti's Notion of Contingency/Dependence, with a Special Focus on vinasa

The concept of contingency is very much debated. In this paper, I'll offer a novel interpretation of it in Dharmakirti's ontology, focusing on his treatment and understanding of vinasa (translation: perishing) which is, according to Dharmakirti's, not contingent and thus occurs necessarily to everything. I will do so by clarifying some important terms, motivating and explaining Dharmakirti's position, and analyzing first and some Dharmakirtian debate excerpts with Nyaya and/or Vaisesika philosophers as the main opponents. In the course of this, I will show that basically, for Dharmakirti, contingency is tantamount to dependency, whereas Nyaya and/or Vaisesika authors, e.g., Sridhara and Bhasarvajana, claim that something can be dependent on something else and still be necessary.