According to Socrates, causation cannot possibly be explained in terms of material explanation. A material cause (for instance, that Socrates is in his cell results from the way his body is situated) only provides those conditions without which the real cause could not operate. The real cause, then, is given by a teleological explanation. A teleological explanation will tell us why things are the way they are rather than simply explaining that they are the way they are. To get a grasp on such an explanation, Socrates turns to theory to solve his problems. His answer to what provides a teleological explanation for things, the Theory of Forms, will be detailed in the next section.