The paper tries to present Immanuel Wallerstein's world-system theory as a legitimate world interpretation which provides a real alternative to the mainstream globalization discourse. Accordingly it traces, in the first step, the methodological fundament upon which eventually the whole theoretical construction is based. Following this it draws the outlines of the philosophy of history constituting the clue of the world-system theory. Finally, it inquires into the Wallersteinian interpretation of the concepts and phenomena prevailing in the contemporary social science agenda.