 On van Fraassen’s view, the contribution of ‘because’ to the truth conditions of (28) is simply boolean conjunction, as reflected in (27). The role of ‘because’ in (28) is to perform the pragmatic function of indicating that (27) is being used for an explanatory purpose, not to give a non-truth-functional dimension to the truth conditions of (28). Proposition \(A\) (the core of answer (27)/(28)) is said to be relevant to \(Q\) iff \(A\) bears the relevance relation \(R\) to \(\langle P,X\rangle\). In general, to ask why is to ask for a reason, and \(R\) varies according to the kind of reason that is being requested in a given context. One can ask why in order to request causal factors, to request a justification, to request a purpose, to request a motive, to request a function, and so on.