Full Idea
The refinement of a simple counterfactual analysis is to say that cause and effect depend on a series of events. This must be asserted because counterfactual conditionals are well known not to be transitive.
Gist of Idea
The full counterfactual story asserts a series of events, because counterfactuals are not transitive
Source
Jonathan Bennett (Event Causation: counterfactual analysis [1987])
Book Reference
'Causation', ed/tr. Sosa,E. /Tooley,M. [OUP 1993], p.218
A Reaction
This fills out the theory, but offers another target for critics. If the glue that binds the series is not in the counterfactuals, is it just in the mind of the speaker? How do you decide what's in the series? Cf. deciding offside in football (soccer!).