The role of contrast in causal and explanatory claims

Christopher Hitchcock

pp. 395-419

in: Synthese 107 (3), 1996.

Abstract

Following Dretske (1977), there has been a considerable body of literature on the role of contrastive stress in causal claims. Following van Fraassen (1980), there has been a considerable body of literature on the role of contrastive stress in explanations and explanation-requesting why-questions. Amazingly, the two bodies of literature have remained almost entirely disjoint. With an understanding of the contrastive nature of ordinary causal claims, and of the linguistic roles of contrastive stress, it is possible to provide a unified account of both phenomena. I provide such an account from within the framework of a probabilistic theory of causation. Relations of ‘screening-off’, long familiar to researchers in probabilistic causality, play a central role in this account.