ABSTRACT
The monograph Human Nature in Modern Economics considers possible risks for economics resulting from simplified assumptions about human nature (e.g. homo oeconomicus) and chances of adopting other concepts. A critical analysis of views of human nature created under new heterodoxy shows its significance to modern economics and determinants of changes occurring within the science. Three hypotheses are put forward. (1) The way of practising and understanding economics depends on the adopted concept of human nature. (2) The development and differentiation of concepts of human nature in economics follow changes in the economy, its environment and scientific and colloquial knowledge about human nature. (3) The evolution of economics observed since the 1980s has been mostly caused by the development and differentiation of concepts of human nature in heterodox approaches. The first two chapters serve as a terminological and conceptual introduction, presenting the importance of the concept of human nature in economics. They provide the meta-model subsequently used in Chapters 3 and 4 to analyse and compare views of human nature in modern economics. Chapters 5 and 6 discuss the determinants of changes in economic assumptions about human nature and their consequences for actual developments (a paradigm shift?) in economics.
