 For whether-questions (indeed, for all elementary questions in the view of some), the question-answer relationship can be defined in purely formal terms. One approach to why-questions is to try to make the question-answer relationship formal in that case, too, or at least as formal as possible. The main proponent of this approach is Bromberger (1966), whose account is also the first influential account of why-questions. Van Fraassen (1980) takes an opposite view, theorizing that the question-answer relationship is almost purely pragmatic. Skow (2016) proposes a theory that is neither formal nor pragmatic but is instead metaphysical, claiming that answers to lower-level why-questions always identify causes or grounds. We consider all three theories in some detail below.