ABSTRACT
This chapter emphasizes that historical sociology, as presently constituted, intends to render a conceptualized account of societal processes as they actually occur, meaning that the occurrences are considered as ends in themselves, though illuminated by theory. Speaking methodologically, the implication is that historical sociology cannot be "scientific" in the sense in which a mathematical statement is scientific because it cannot abstract from the dynamic and dialectic quality of man. Vico was as much in opposition to major trends in the philosophical thinking of his time as historical sociology today is in opposition to major trends in contemporary sociology. Not unlike Hobbes, Vico emphasizes that law first establishes responsibility toward the gods and the community established by the gods and only subsequently responsibility toward one's fellowman. To the theoretical concept of religion is added the methodological concept of poetry. The "ideal eternal history" thereby is transformed from a theory of successive stages into a unified theoretical system, without losing its historicity.
