History versus Science: The Evolutionary Solution

Abstract

History matters because time and place matter and because of path-dependence. Hence only idiographic and not nomothetic statements are possible according to some historical sociolo- gists. Others accuse the former of having abandoned science. It is not sufficiently appreciated that in understanding the role of both history and necessity, evolutionary theory has solved this problem. Moreover, methods available for inferring what is uniquely related to what, having come via the same path, and for testing hypotheses controlling for the possibly confounding effects of common histories should be of interest to sociologists on both sides of the history versus science divide.