ABSTRACT
This chapter proposes an epistemological justification for construing international studies as a trans-cultural enterprise. A justification accompanies any theoretical innovation. The proponent of any new theory must persuade others of its intrinsic merits and superiority over pre-existing competitors. Explicitly or implicitly, such a justification necessarily appeals to some meta-theory - a theory of theory choice - on the basis of which people adjudicate claims to the rightness of competing generalizations. The school of French conventionalism bridged conservative activism and revolutionary activism. In recounting the debates that culminate in his own position, Lakatos, drawing upon distinctions first advanced by Popper provided taxonomy of epistemological frameworks. Truth-relativism sometimes attracts adherents among those who would welcome more trans-cultural international studies. With falsificationism, Popper offered a remedy. Whenever scientists proposed a theory, they would state the conditions under which they would give it up.
