Antimetaphysicalism

Thus, the theory of history served as a powerful pragmatic reinforcement, in Comte's scheme, for the epistemological premises of positivism—relentless phenomenalism, antimetaphysicalism, and unitarian hierarchy of knowledge.

Wolin does not treat Kristeller, but we can add Kristeller's case to the list; although Kristeller refrained from extended critique and self-indulgent consideration of the Heidegger problem, Kristeller's rationalist project was in effect a rebuttal in practice of Heidegger's antimetaphysicalism.

Antimetaphysicalism dated back to Hume, who, in his celebrated Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, declares: When we run over libraries... if we take in our hand any volume; of divinity or school metaphysics, for instance; let us ask, Does it contain any abstract reasoning concerning quantity or number? No. Does it contain any experimental reasoning concerning matter of fact and existence? No. Commit it then to the flames: for it can contain nothing but sophistry and illusion.