Abstract
States that philosophy has no special claim to scrutiny of historical works that can only be judged by the standard of logical reasoning, a standard that has not been applied by philosophy, and questions the existence of historiographical progress. Two tests for historical progress are proposed: one measuring successful explanation by its subjective impact upon the audience and another measuring successful explanation by its objective accounting of reality. Subjective modes which are preferable for social and political explanations are at the same time objective facts of social and political understanding.