ABSTRACT
In everyday and not-so-everyday life, we encounter situations that seem to demand an explanation of why something happened, how it happened, or how it could have been prevented. For example, following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, many people sought explanations for each of these questions. Explanations of why it happened have focused on Islamic fundamentalism and US hegemony in world politics. Explanations of how it happened, by contrast, have focused on the actions of the terrorists and their accomplices who were involved in instigating or directly carrying out the attacks. Differently still, explanations of how the attacks might have been prevented have focused on errors of judgment and ineffectual policies of US government agencies such as the CIA and the FBI that bore responsibility for preventing such attacks. As the example illustrates, explanations are “tuned” by the type of question they are meant to address. They are meant to be relevant, not “merely” true or probable (Hilton and Erb 1996).
