[otikik]

> You probably have to assume there is a necessary substrate. What else can you possibly think?

That there's no necessary substrate.

> Contingency means being contingent on something else

Can't it just be "luck", then? Chaos just happened to take this form.

> At some point you will likely take it for granted that there must be something that is itself not contingent

Sorry but I don't agree. I think it is perfectly conceivable that everything is contingent and there's no "necessary substrate". For example: it could be that several factors (things like the gravitational constant and the different fundamental forces) are contingent on isolation, but when they are put together the ensemble becomes necessary. Like in a tensegrity structure (not saying that I think that's what happens to our Universe, just pointing out that there's other options besides "One necessary substrate", and we don't know which one is ours).