 But the human science of psychology that deals with individual human beings cannot examine them apart from interactions with society. “Man as a fact prior to history and society is a fiction” (1883/SW.I, 83). This means that psychology can be a foundational human science only if it is conceived as being primarily descriptive. Psychological explanations may still be possible, but only by starting with a non-hypothetical base that describes how our experience assimilates social and cultural features. Many human character traits are not purely psychological. Thus when we speak of a person as thrifty we are combining economic and psychological features.