Contingency logical status – UGC NET Question

A contingency is a statement whose truth value varies across different possible assignments of truth values to its components. It is neither always true nor always false. Most ordinary factual statements have this contingent status. Therefore the description in the stem refers to a contingency.

Option A:
Option A is correct because contingency is the standard name for propositions that can be true in some circumstances and false in others. This intermediate status contrasts with tautologies and contradictions and matches the mixed truth behaviour described.

Option B:
Option B, tautology, is true under every valuation and so lacks the possibility of being false. This does not match the stem’s indication that the statement is sometimes false. Hence tautology is not suitable.

Option C:
Option C, contradiction, is false under every valuation and therefore is never true. The question, however, specifies that the statement is sometimes true, so contradiction cannot be the answer.

Option D:
Option D, theorem, is a result that has been proved within a logical or mathematical system and may or may not be tautological depending on the system. It is not defined by having mixed truth values. Thus theorem is not the best term here.