Background Conditions and Causes

To form historical explanations, we have to understand the difference between causes and background conditions.

Causes are not the same as Background conditions!

Let us look at a scenario to find out the difference.

O n the 4th April 2010…

A car accident happened on Jurong West Street 42 on a rainy night at 9.29p.m.

The car hit the lamp-post and the driver suffered from a serious head injury.

What is the cause of the car accident?

1) The road was too slippery and it was too dark for him to see clearly.

or

2)The car brakes were faulty.

The answer is 2!

Why?

This is because there are other drivers who do not meet with an accident even though it is at night or when the roads are slippery.

The broken brakes is not present in the cases where the car accident did not happen. Therefore, it was the broken brakes prevented the driver from hitting the lamp-post.

A ‘cause’ in History is frequently chosen because it is something that might have been different, or is not to be found in other (‘normal’) situations.

Our ideas about what is normal help decide what is a background condition, and what is a cause

-Peter J. Lee Understanding History p.15

To cause a person to do something is to give them a motive for doing it.

(Example: My wife’s illness caused me to send for the doctor.)

But motivation does not guarantee the action. Circumstances may favour or may hinder it.

Now let us look at another example.

What are the causes of Italian Renaissance?What are the causes of Italian Renaissance?First, what was it?

It was the coming together at a certain time and place of the actions of a number of scholars, financiers, poets, philosophers, scholars, painters, sculptors and architects.

To explain their actions we need to know, first, what motivated them, and second, what were the circumstances that favoured or hindered their aims.

These circumstances included the presence of Roman remains - literary, architectural, etc - in Italy and the invention of printing (both for); also the tendency to conflict among the Italian states and dependence on princely patronage (both against). Similar lists can be drawn up for other events.

The chief thing is to distinguish the causes (what motivated the actors) from the surrounding circumstances. These only helped or hindered their intentions.

Circumstances are also described as the conditions.

Circumstances can influence human actions.

An Argument broke out yesterday

Boy A was injured because Girl C had thrown a chair at him, because Boy A had insulted Girl C by saying that she was not smart.

Among the conditions favouring the argument include- that it happened in a classroom- that Boy A had said Girl C was not smart- that it happened in the afternoon- and many others.

It is likely to pinpoint the cause of the injury to the CHAIR. But strictly speaking, a chair is just a chair; it cannot bring

about anything else unless a human uses it to do something.

The background condition…

Girl C was motivated to act on something (in this case, throwing the chair) because she was angry, thus causing the injury of Boy A.

THAT’S ALL!!

Emmet, Dorothy Mary ( 1985) .The effectiveness of causes. Albany: State of University of New York Press.

Peter J. Lee ( 2002). “Putting principles into practice: Understanding history “ in How Students learn History in the Classroom. pp 31-77.Washington DC: National Research Council .

Stanford, Micheal (n.d).“Causation” . new perspective Volume 7 Number 1Retrieved on 20th March 2010 from, http://www.history-ontheweb.co.uk/concepts/concept71_causation.htm