 A second major development in the theory of why-questions is the account of van Fraassen (1980, ch. 5). Van Fraassen’s theory is motivated by the idea that explanation is not a special relationship between theory and reality. Rather, an explanation is just a description of reality that serves a contextually determined purpose, namely that of answering a why-question. Van Fraassen’s theory is thus an erotetic (i.e., question-theoretic) theory of explanation, as opposed to an account of why-questions in terms of explanation. He offers this theory in the context of developing his account of Constructive Empiricism. 