historicism: Meaning and Definition of

his•tor•i•cism

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.