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This paper is a reaction to an article by Wolf Feuerhahn, published in the same journal under the title “Researchers and the discourse of their objects.” It takes up Feuerhahn’s proposal, who advocates for a historicist approach in the social sciences and humanities, and requalifies it as “radical historicism.” It then discusses two points. First, it distinguishes presentism from anachronism, suggesting that the latter could be controlled and productive. Second, it investigates the limits of strict nominalism conceived of as a method—a textual approach that the author describes as “literality.”