Modern (post renaissance) history, economics and political theory are often totally model focused. Ibn Khaldun is (in my definitions) the earliest example). He

Modern (post renaissance) history, economics and political theory are often totally model focused. Ibn Khaldun is (in my definitions) the earliest example). He describes mesapotamian history, for example, as a process where barbarians take a city, gradually become soft urbanites and then it happens again. It's a model rather than an occurrence. It's a predecessor of Adam Smith, Marx, and even 2019 people like Yuval Noah Harari. The thesis is a model. Facts are tests and/or values for the model, not the thesis.