R. G. Collingwood, The Idea of History, Vico, 65:

Man is no mere demiurge, fashioning human society
as Plato's God fashions the world on an ideal model;
like God Himself, he is a real creator,
bringing into existence both form and matter together
in the corporate work of his own historical development.

The fabric of human society is created by man out of nothing,
and every detail of this fabric is therefore a human factum,
eminently knowable to the human mind as such.