Doug asked:
>Is it a Cox-like shyness about generalizing about patterns
>of thought, because everything is so incommensurate?
From my experience as a history grad student, it's more an apolitical disinclination to speculate about what causes major changes. I think the last big debate over a question like that among historians was maybe the Brenner (from Robert Brenner) debate about the transiton from feudalism to capitalism.