The transition to a more circular economy has been adopted as a guiding principle in several national policies. The present paper reviews the international definitional, theoretical, and methodological approaches to the circular economy originating in the Western environment with a view to assessing their applicability in the (post-) transitional context of Central and Eastern Europe and to identifying the elements of their integrative conceptual core. The main finding is that scientific research on circular economy and circular business thinking takes two relatively independent directions, descriptive and normative, as it is grounded in two different methodological approaches. The paper provides definitional clarifications and policy implications for the Czech environment and shows that it is possible to use a starting point for further research on circularity that would not be based on dichotomous approaches but on integrity, a holistic approach.