How Similar Are Causation and Grounding? Ennobling, Extrinsicality, Contingency

We point out an important, overlooked parallel between causation and grounding. Certain cases of causation, such as trumping preemption, reveal causation to be extrinsic: what causes what can depend on what is happening in other parts of the universe. Parallel cases of grounding reveal that the same is true of grounding. This raises a number of important questions — in particular, what determines what causes what and what grounds what? We answer: these are determined by “ennoblers”, a special kind of fact that serves as a second-order explanation.