Accidental Causes and Real Explanations

Abstract

Abstract Among Aristotle scholars current opinion is virtually unanimous that the theory of the four causes is really a theory of explanation. Julius Moravcsik, for example, writes that the theory, ‘properly understood’, ‘is the Stagirite’s account of what constitutes an adequate explanation’. Julia Annas remarks in a similar vein, ‘It is a great improvement to cease thinking of an aitia as a cause and to treat it instead as an explanation, a “because”.’ A host of other Aristotelian scholars have joined in, as has the philosopher of science Bas van Fraassen, who sees in Aristotle’s texts a theory of causes emphasizing, like his own, ‘the pragmatics of explanation’.