 The transcendental nucleus is method, and method is the meaning of idealism; hence, idealism is born when reason becomes self-conscious of its thinking as methodical and  scientific.[37]  Since this birth has a historical locus, Cohen argues, “idealism’s historical origin … conditions idealism through its connection with the methodological foundation of science no less than its material origin in methodology” (Cohen 1916:  309).[38]  Put another way, idealism connects with its methodological foundation by connecting with its historical origin (cf. Cohen 1902: 450). It follows that idealism has two related historical tasks: the primary task is to open and maintain a direct avenue to its origin. This involves the secondary task of retracing previous scientific connections to that same primal idealism, which alone can serve as the criterion of the “relatedness [Verwandtheit] of different phases of science” (cf. Cohen 1916: 310). The history of idealism is therefore not of its evolution (as is the history of science) but of its rebirths.