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15560 | We can explain a chance event, but can never show why some other outcome did not occur [Lewis] |
Full Idea: I think we are right to explain chance events, yet we are right also to deny that we can ever explain why a chance process yields one outcome rather than another. We cannot explain why one event happened rather than the other. | |
From: David Lewis (Causal Explanation [1986], VI) | |
A reaction: This misses out an investigation which slowly reveals that a 'chance' event wasn't so chancey after all. Failure to explain confirms chance, so the judgement of chance shouldn't block attempts to explain. |