Explanatory Conditionals

Abstract

This article aims to complement causal model approaches to causal explanation by James Woodward, Joseph Halpern and Judea Pearl, and Michael Strevens. It centers on a strengthened Ramsey Test of conditionals: α≫γ if and only if, after suspending judgment about α and γ, an agent can infer γ from the supposition of α (in the context of further beliefs in the background). Holger Andreas and Mario Günther used this conditional as the starting point of an analysis of ‘because’ in natural language. I refine this analysis so as to yield a fully fledged account of (deterministic) causal explanation.