m, -stor-]
| 1. | a theory that history is determined by immutable laws and not by human agency. |
| 2. | a theory that all cultural phenomena are historically determined and that historians must study each period without imposing any personal or absolute value system. |
| 3. | a profound or excessive respect for historical institutions, as laws or traditions. |
| 4. | a search for laws of historical evolution that would explain and predict historical phenomena. |