Compare four questions: 1.Do you know the reason why planets are spherical? 2.Do you know the reason why ball bearings are spherical? 3.Do you know the reason why asteroids aren’t spherical? 4.Do you know the reason why dice aren’t spherical? The word “reason” is acceptable in all four questions (at least to my ear—how about yours?), but the answers to (1) and (3) don’t give reasons (there aren’t any reasons); they give causes, or process narratives. In some contexts the word “reason” can mean cause, unfortunately. You can answer questions (2) and (4) with process narratives along the lines of
...more
