ABSTRACT
The nature of the debate between relativism and rationalism has changed since the enlightenment, and any similarities are limited to the outward-most aspects origin of concepts. Raymond Boudon research on cognitive rationality illustrates the distinction that must be made between classical rationalism and present conceptions of the same notion. Adherents to the economics of conventions often cite Hume's metaphor of the rowers who without having to utter a word fall by tacit agreement into a shared rhythm. Primo, certain sociologists defend the thesis of the conventional nature of scientific knowledge by observing that all human practices rest on "socially instituted rules". If one reasons on a longer timescale, the situation echoes the discussions that set rationalists against relativists at the end of the eighteenth century and, no solution having been found then, the debate has passed from generation to generation down to the day.
