“By Itself” as Explanatory Compression: Ordinary Language, Causal Structure, and the Illusion of Spontaneity

This paper argues that the ordinary-language expression “by itself” does not denote causelessness but functions as a form of explanatory compression. In everyday discourse, the term signals the absence of salient agency and the omission of detailed mechanism rather than the absence of causal structure. Drawing on work in philosophy of language, metaphysics of causation, and philosophy of science, I analyze how this linguistic shortcut operates and how its uncritical extension into metaphysical discourse generates confusion. The analysis clarifies the distinction between ontological spontaneity and epistemic underspecification and situates the phenomenon within contemporary theories of explanation and causal attribution.