ABSTRACT
Before looking more deeply at the sceptical and relativist implications of the second sense of historicism I need to consider in more detail whether there is not a version of Popper’s approach which could avoid relativism. Clearly Popper thought that rational reconstruction would do more than merely recount or describe historical events. Are there no necessary criteria of rationality built into the reconstruction and constitution of historical interpretations? Is not the history of science precisely where such universal standards of rationality are to be found? To answer these questions we need a more developed account of rational reconstruction.
