(1) Historical development has the same universal law as natural science, and historians can find it through empirical research. ② Oppose the pure speculative thinking of history, and advocate summing up the law from the empirical study of empirical historical facts. ③ The theories and methods of natural science can be used for historical research. Historians can objectively describe historical facts and reproduce what happened in the past. This influence is undoubtedly positive, and it encourages people to look for the regularity of history. Tanner (hippie a. Taine. 1828 ~ 1893) thinks that history, like chemistry, is a precise science and can be handled by analytical reasoning methods in the laboratory. In his view, it is not enough to sum up the facts in historical research. Facts exist only on the surface, but what actually exists is an abstract and universal concept. He argues that the object of historical research is psychological activities, and the purpose of writing history is to try to discover the spiritual power of the nation-state and explain what role the spirit plays. Obviously, he realized the one-sidedness of positivism and thought that historical research should also go deep into the national spirit. Croce also has a positive evaluation of positivism. He said: "Because of positivism, historical works have become less naive, and the facts in the works have become richer, especially those neglected by romanticism."

Therefore, positivism is an important trend of thought in the west in the19th century.