ABSTRACT
Theory by definition is concerned with generality. Philosophers of science may be disinclined to consider any and all inductive generalizations as worthy of having bestowed on them the honorific label of theory, but distinction between generality and particularity or specificity is undoubtedly the elementary line of division between theoretical and nontheoretical statements about the world. One prominent version of the union of theory and fact has been what Karl Popper called the "covering law" model of scientific explanation. Representations of particular natural objects and settings are common enough, but they usually are no more than that rather than efforts to describe in the fullest detail and to account for—that is, explain—the particularity itself. It used to be asserted by enthusiastic proponents of "new" social sciences that the humanities consisted simply of a huge collection of past and present subjective impressions, or in the case of recorded history more or less reliable descriptions of particular time and space-bound facts.
