ABSTRACT
National traditions of thought have been invoked for understanding cross-national differences in scholarly practices. As these assertions remained close to common sense perceptions of nations and their peculiarities, while being at odds with universalist claims about the validity of scientific knowledge, the very idea of national traditions of thought has also been vividly contested. This chapter argues that national intellectual traditions represent a significant issue, but that their precise meaning and analytical significance have yet to be properly assessed. In reconceptualizing the question, different levels of analysis and specific meanings of the concept need to be disentangled so as to arrive at a conceptualization that is both analytically satisfactory and empirically sound.
