S

We have traced a distinct tendency towards explanation—which already took

shape in the struggle between disciplines for supremacy—in the development of

particular discoveries into general principles. But in so doing we already proceeded

to the second phase of development of a general science which we have mentioned

in passing above. In the first phase, which is determined by the tendency towards

generalization, the general science is at bottom quantitatively different from the

special ones. In the second phase—the phase in which the tendency towards ex-

planation predominates—the internal structure of the general science is already

qualitatively distinct from the special disciplines. Not all sciences, as we will see,