In the most general terms, a reason is a consideration in an argument which justifies or explains an action, a belief, an attitude, or a fact.
Additionally, words and phrases such as since, due to, as, considering (that), a result (of), and in order to, for example, all serve as explanatory locutions that precede the reason to which they refer.
[2] Normative or justifying reasons are often said to be "considerations which count in favor" of some state of affairs (this is, at any rate, a common view, notably held by T. M. Scanlon and Derek Parfit).
[3][4] Explanatory reasons are considerations which serve to explain why things have happened or why states of affairs are the way they are.
[citation needed] Some philosophers (one being John Broome[5]) view normative reasons as the same as "explanations of ought facts".