 While Hempel initially interpreted the bracketed variable [\(r\)] as the measure of inductive support which the explanans confers upon the explanandum, \(Gi\), (in conformity with the requirement of total evidence)—where the value of [\(r\)] equals that of \(r\)—it occurred to him that, since inductive and deductive explanations are typically offered on the basis of the knowledge that their explanandum events have already occurred, viewing statistical explanations as inductive arguments whose purpose is to establish how we know that they have occurred (or that they will occur) is not the correct perspective for understanding them: