The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex
Such a distinction can be traced back to two different but almost contemporary origins. On the one hand strictly epistemological, to the German historicism which, with Droysen, Dilthey, Windelband, and Rickert, formulated the separation between idiographic and nomothetic method, "verstehen" and "erklären", "Geisteswissenschaften" and "Naturwissenschaften", separation still subject to dispute until 1970 in the so-called "Positivismusstreit" between the Frankfurt School (Adorno, Habermas), supporter of the "Kritische Theorie", and the "Kritischer Rationalismus" (Popper, Albert). On the other hand, strictly intersexual, to the gender essentialism according to Darwin's 1871 book "The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex".