Our first effort to establish the basis for a directional history is
thus only partly successful. What we have called the "logic of
modern natural science" is in effect an economic interpretation of
historical change, but one which (unlike its Marxist variant) leads
to capitalism rathe r than socialism as its final result. Th e logic of
moder n science can explain a great deal about our world: why we
residents of developed democracies are office workers rather than
peasants eking out a living on the land, why we are members of