By dkl9, written 2025-093, revised 2025-097 (1 revisions)
"Why X?" is an ambiguous question. Most directly, it means "what happened that led to X?", but for some X, like "you avoiding wheat and meat", the question could distinctly mean "what happened that led away from the default Y at all, whatever the conclusion?". These meanings are, respectively, the "explore" and "embark" aspects of "why?".
Humans often want each other to adopt their beliefs and preferred actions, so they often take "why X?" as "what is there to best convince someone of X?". For many X, like "you being barefoot", that aspect makes more sense worded with "convince someone that X is good". Either way, the answer to that form is, in general, different, so this forms another aspect of "why?": endorse.
| Question | "Embark" answer | "Explore" answer | "Endorse" answer |
|---|---|---|---|
| Why play the piano? | I was bored one week and sought to do new things | Internet suggested it and friends pressured it | It's very doable and fun |
| Why do plants need sunlight? | Life, such as plants, takes energy | They evolved to get energy that way, in photosynthesis | Put plants in a dark room, and they die faster |
| Why does Zcourge play that tune? | I ignored uniform beeps too easily | It's meant to imitate a Nokia phone alarm and was easy enough to program | It's about annoying enough to make you want it to stop |
| Why pursue ascetic hedonism? | My family vaguely opposed consumerism | The pursuit of pleasure felt futile to me | It makes life cheap, flexible, and mindful |
| Why is theft "bad"? | Humans use morals to guide their actions and restrict others' | Intuition may label theft as bad, and experience shows it's useful to prohibit it | People own property and should retain it until they consent otherwise |
| Why memorise people's names? | I often forgot names, and decided to try harder | It turned out, for me, to be easy and fun | They're useful for thinking |
From what I've seen, whys are most often answered as "endorse" questions, less often as "explore", and sparsely as "embark". If someone answers one aspect of "why?", but you sought another, clarify your question. If you both know the taxonomy given here, bring up one of these E-terms. Otherwise, use an expanded form of the question, as used above to define these aspects of "why?".