ABSTRACT
Historians, in somewhat radical contrast with other types of inquirers (e.g, mathematical physicists), never give up the world of common-sense objects and occurrences for any other, no matter how clear or rational this other may be. Believing that one can learn what will be by knowing something about what had happened, historians seek to find what in the past is relevant to what is present. The objects they now confront are for them the termini of processes which began with common-sense items, went through common-sense changes and transformations, and terminated in present common-sense objects.
