 But isn’t this distinction superficial? After all, the fact that motivates John, i.e., that Peter has betrayed him, can also explain John’s action—we need not cite John’s knowledge of this fact. As we shall see below  (3.2),  this is controversial: some philosophers think that all reason explanations require reference to psychological states of the agent. Be that as it may, consider a different example. The fact that Othello believes that Desdemona is unfaithful explains why he kills her. But the fact that he believes in her infidelity is not the reason in light of which he kills her, the reason that, in his eyes, favours killing her. What he takes to favour killing her is the (putative) fact that she is unfaithful. Again, these are importantly different reasons: for it can be the case that Othello believes that Desdemona is unfaithful without it being the case that she is, and vice versa. Moreover, since Desdemona is not unfaithful, that putative fact cannot be what explains Othello’s action because something that is not the case cannot explain anything—though, as we shall see below (also  3.2),  this view of explanation has proved controversial too.