In the UK Thatcher might have been a driving force. In Western thinking (entering a rabbit hole) conceiving humanities as sciences is a recurrent theme (say, in the Scepticism of Hume) that Auguste Comte in the 19th century turned into the doctrine of positivism:

- The scientific method (and precision of mathematics) applies to all sciences, social and natural.

- Knowledge can be proved only by observation trough empiric means and deductive reasoning.