ABSTRACT
Newtonian physics set itself the task of describing a nature that was universal and objective since no reference was made to its observer; a nature that was complete, since at bottom it escaped the domination of time. Within the sciences of nature there rears itself once more the problem of the historicity of nature itself, of its capacity for development and innovation, the problem of a nature capable of producing men and human society. History and the sciences of man were allotted a role within the system of relationships in science, and delineated this role as resolving itself into a position of substantial subordinacy, of logical and methodological minority. Some positions have been most rigidly prescriptive, others more conscientiously bent on stressing the special nature of the object of historical research and its methods; but both were to find it equally hard to posit causal explanation.
