A contrastivist view of explanation is compatible with an invariantist view of causation, since contrasts in explanation merely select among causes rather than redefining the causal relation itself
Cei Maslen (2004), Jonathan Schaffer (2005) and Robert Northcott (2008) all defend ‘contrastive’ accounts of causation. Schaffer conceives causation as a four-place relation – c rather than c* caused e rather than e* – and claims that context (or other devices, such as stress on a particular word) generally fixes the implied contrasts (c* and e*) in our ordinary, two-place causal talk, thereby playing a role in the truth or falsity of our (two-place) causal claims. Note that contrastivism about