medium · MCAT cars

Passage: Counterfactual history—the study of 'what if'—is often derided as a parlor game. Yet, it serves a critical heuristic function by highlighting the contingency of events. By imagining a world where a specific battle was lost or an assassin's bullet missed, historians can isolate the causal weight of specific variables. Without such 'virtual' histories, we risk falling into a deterministic trap where every outcome appears inevitable. Question: The author's primary purpose is to:

1. Demonstrate that history is a parlor game with no real causal weight.
2. Argue that counterfactual scenarios are more important than actual events.
3. Prove that every historical outcome is the result of inevitable forces.
4. Defend a maligned historical method by explaining its analytical value.

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