It's cargo-culting physics to assert that there are a set of "high level" laws in some area without having in hand the reductionist mechanics.
This cart-before-the-horse is so pervasive in social sciences, and developing sciences like neuroscience, that it's understandable one would ask why history can't get in on the action.
The glib invocation of phlogiston theory is telling. The essence of phlogiston theory is not wrong!
This cart-before-the-horse is so pervasive in social sciences, and developing sciences like neuroscience, that it's understandable one would ask why history can't get in on the action.
The glib invocation of phlogiston theory is telling. The essence of phlogiston theory is not wrong!