 Nation-states are regionally defined historical wholes, but we can also delineate temporal composite wholes such as historical phases. What characterizes a generation according to Dilthey is the crystallization of a movement sparked by the maturation of a certain age group. An epoch is more impersonal and large-scale. It marks a pervasive “permeating tendency” (1910/SW.III, 198). Each epoch defines a life-horizon by which people orient their life. “Such a horizon places life, life-concerns, life-experience, and thought-formation in a certain proportion” (1910/SW.III, 198), which tends to restrain the way individuals can modify their outlooks. But an epoch is only an overall tendency that encompasses opposing forces. In fact, a new epoch will often be sparked by the dissatisfactions produced by any force that becomes too dominant and complacent.