With the decline of religion and the waning of metaphysics, humanists are left with little more than "history" as a field for inquiry into "human nature." Many of the debates over the cognitive status of historical discourse turn upon problems caused by the displacement of religious and metaphysical concerns into the field of history. Yet, in its desire to be objective--in a modestly scientific sense--history has given up its traditional resources for making sense of both the past and the relation between the past and the present. In his lecture, White addresses the question, what exists as a solution?