This is what we call counterfactual history or speculation.    From Wordnik.com.  [NPR Topics: News] Reference

In this example, the counterfactual is not sufficient to stretch the suspension of disbelief.    From Wordnik.com.  [Strange Fiction 5] Reference

Here's a great question, called a counterfactual by us social psychologists.    From Wordnik.com.  [Lifehacker] Reference

This is called a counterfactual: a what would have happened scenario that can't be refuted.    From Wordnik.com.  [Three Million Imaginary Jobs] Reference

But you seem to be assuming that the counterfactual is a 100% success rate in some other occupation.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Volokh Conspiracy » More on Whether Affirmative Action in Law Schools Backfires on Prospective Black Lawyers:] Reference

But then Brooks’s counterfactual is pointless, because you can’t choose to marry someone you can be happy with.    From Wordnik.com.  [Matthew Yglesias » Eternal Recurrence] Reference

Philip Roth used a "counterfactual" history — what if Nazi sympathizers in the US won the 1940 election?.    From Wordnik.com.  [Clive Thompson on Why Sci-Fi Is the Last Bastion of Philosophical Writing] Reference

“surgical intervention” enables us to capture the notion of counterfactual dependence between variables.    From Wordnik.com.  [My Shasta Daisy] Reference

I think this leads to a puzzle, illustrating the limitations of this kind of counterfactual thought experiment.    From Wordnik.com.  [Warranted Christian Belief] Reference

This 'counterfactual' angle what if history went down a different path? soon became appealing to players as well.    From Wordnik.com.  [Archive 2010-01-01] Reference

But he lamented how an angry public gave him little credit for avoiding "an abstract 'counterfactual'" economic meltdown.    From Wordnik.com.  [Review of 'The Promise: President Obama, Year One' by Jonathan Alter] Reference

Meanwhile, Goldman also proposed a kind of counterfactual reliability theory in “Discrimination and Perceptual Knowledge” (1976).    From Wordnik.com.  [Reliabilism] Reference

The 'counterfactual' Gini, reflecting unchanged Conservative policies, was.    From Wordnik.com.  [Our Word is Our Weapon] Reference

The "counterfactual" case would be to see if women were more likely to go into their father's line of work or that of their father-in-law.    From Wordnik.com.  [Livescience.com] Reference

"counterfactual" to claims that the BBC is impartial.    From Wordnik.com.  [OPEN THREAD] Reference

Sure you are an intelligent man and understand what a "counterfactual" is.    From Wordnik.com.  [He really is awful isn't he?] Reference

Oh, for heaven’s sake, this kind of counterfactual can be used to justify anything.    From Wordnik.com.  [Matthew Yglesias » Israel Deserves Better Defenders Than Andrew Roberts] Reference

This counterfactual seems more than a bit unrealistic.    From Wordnik.com.  [Dean Baker: Economists Tell the Masses: "It Could Have Been Worse"] Reference

People should consider the counterfactual for a moment.    From Wordnik.com.  [Rendell: Isn't Popular Vote As Important As Pledged Del Count?] Reference

The problem with the study is the implicit counterfactual.    From Wordnik.com.  [Eat your chicken ... or else] Reference

The counterfactual I offer is not merely a counterfactual.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Public Domain Enclosing the Commons of the Mind] Reference

Consequences of saving the Titanic (for counterfactual buffs).    From Wordnik.com.  [kevynwight Diary Entry] Reference

Suppose as an alternative counterfactual, we let the market do its work.    From Wordnik.com.  [Eat your chicken ... or else] Reference

Of course, not all the savings in this counterfactual would have gone to profits.    From Wordnik.com.  [Dean Baker: If G.M. Was a Canadian Company It Wouldn't Be Asking for Help] Reference

Consider a counterfactual situation for a moment: What if it had been Clarence Thomas?.    From Wordnik.com.  [President's Sycophants Are Blaming the Victim] Reference

The power of counterfactual thinking is that forces us to step outside of our comfort zones.    From Wordnik.com.  [Why a Famous Counterfactual Historian Loves Making History With Games] Reference

But assume there is, and someone raises that idiotic, counterfactual internet rumor to Obama.    From Wordnik.com.  [Sunday Roundup] Reference

It's a laundry list, and it's utterly counterfactual to claim that Hillary didn't take Penn's advice.    From Wordnik.com.  [Wolfson: Hillary's Senior Advisers All Rejected Penn's Push For Xenophobic Campaign] Reference

The counterfactual is impossible to disprove, but the American people can see the reality with their own eyes.    From Wordnik.com.  [The 1.6% Recovery] Reference

And counterfactual storytelling about sporting events, of course, only threatens to compound the embarrassment.    From Wordnik.com.  [[em]Observer[/em] Softball Report: What If 9-0 Never Happened?] Reference

Every time a new policy is introduced, or a present policy is maintained, a judgment about a counterfactual has been made.    From Wordnik.com.  [Robert Naiman: Linda Polman on "Afghaniscam": Is U.S. "Aid" Making Things Worse?] Reference

There's no way to prove such a counterfactual, but it can't hurt to preemptively strike against a policy you oppose, right?.    From Wordnik.com.  [VAT’s All the Fuss About?] Reference

Under the counterfactual that people who don't chicken don't eat anything else either, they certainly will starve to death.    From Wordnik.com.  [Dean Baker: Economists Tell the Masses: "It Could Have Been Worse"] Reference

The latter, probably, since the actresses happily engaged in counterfactual speculation about the "future" of their characters.    From Wordnik.com.  [Night of the Living Sex and the City Cast: Franchise-less Zombie Ladies Talk Up Their Alter Egos on Pink Carpet] Reference

There's no way to disprove this counterfactual, but now we have some empirical evidence other than 9.6% unemployment and 1.6% growth.    From Wordnik.com.  [Stimulus for Clunkers] Reference