 Earlier defenders of causal accounts of explanation took one distinguishing feature of causal accounts to be their metaphysical, or—as Alberto Coffa called it—ontic conception of explanation. The goal of explanation, on this conception is to locate a phenomenon within the objective “causal nexus” (Salmon 1984: 120). Yet as Woodward’s (2003a) work shows, is that it also possible to investigate the relation between explanation and causation within the functional project of examining the cognitive role of explanatory and causal judgments and their connection to prediction, manipulation, and control.