DISCUSSION - AN INTERVENING CAUSE COUNTEREXAMPLE TO RAILTONS DNP MODEL OF EXPLANATION

Peter Railton (1978) has introduced the influential deductive-nomologi cal-probabilistic (DNP) model of explanation which is the culmination of a tradition of formal, non-pragmatic accounts of scientific explana tion. The other models in this tradition have been shown to be suscept ible to a class of counterexamples involving intervening causes which speak against their sufficiency. This treatment has never been extende d to the DNP model; we contend that the usual form of these counterexa mples is ineffective in this case, However, we develop below a new ver sion which overcomes these difficulties. Thus we claim that ail of the models in this tradition, DNP included, have an equal status with res pect to sufficiency.