The Latin term consĕquens, which derives from consĕqui (translatable as “follow”), came to our language as a consequence. It is an adjective that qualifies that which has a dependency or can be deduced from another element.
For example: “The closure of the company and the consequent labor lawsuits generated a great commotion in the small town”, “It is necessary to invest to train human resources and, therefore, improve productivity”, “Excessive consumption of this type of substances tends to cause an increase in the sugar level with the consequent organic imbalance ”.
The expression “therefore” is used to join two terms when the second is generated as a consequence of the antecedent. Suppose a man insults his boss and then gets fired. It can be said that the worker disrespected his superior and was consequently expelled from the company.
A car can suffer a failure in its brakes and, consequently, collide with another vehicle: the collision is a consequence of the failure. In a similar vein, someone can break an arm and therefore need medical attention. There is a logical order in the terms since the car does not crash and then run out of brakes, nor does the person go to the doctor and then fracture the arm. The second action is an effect of the first: it is consequential to its antecedent.
Two very common synonyms for this expression are therefore and therefore, which are used much more frequently in everyday speech than consequently, although all three appear more commonly in the written language. We must not forget that a very important part of language is made up of gestures and interjections, a series of movements, expressions and sounds with which we complete sentences in oral communication.
Very often, we resort to gestural language, interjections or pauses to express ideas of a certain complexity, either due to difficulty in accessing the right words in the middle of a conversation or because we are completely unaware of them. On the other hand, it is believed that certain words and expressions are “too formal” to be used in an environment such as a group of friends or family, in an everyday situation, and this prejudice is enough to relegate all that portion of the language to paper, with the consequent unnecessary complication of oral communication.
In addition to the alternatives just exposed to the expression therefore, in everyday speech we find very often the use of so as another of its synonyms. This expression is not typical of the educated language, but that does not prevent it from being used by people from various contexts, in sentences such as the following: “Today I have to work late, so I won’t be able to meet you”, “I have read all the material so I’m ready to go to work. ‘
For mathematics, the term consequent appears in certain ancient texts as a synonym for consequent, one of the two parts of a reason, which complements the antecedent. A ratio is a relationship between two quantities that can be compared; In short, it is a division or a subtraction between them, and can be expressed as a fraction or as a decimal number.
If we take the ratio 60/12, which can be read as “sixty is to twelve”, the antecedent is 60 and the consequent (or consequent) is 12. We speak of an inverse ratio, for example, when the consequent is put into place of the antecedent and vice versa.
In the field of philosophy, on the other hand, the proposition that is undeniable when the premises are admitted is called consequential.