ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces the cognitive perspective of the book and the terminology associated with concepts of human nature showing the significance of assumptions about human nature in economics and other sciences. This allows establishing a meta-definition of the concept of human nature, and thus the common features of this construct in social sciences. It may help distinguish between various functions that the concept of human nature can perform in economics, inspired by its role in other sciences. In order to compare the various concepts of human nature in different branches of economics, a model is developed based on the achievements of philosophical anthropology. Three basic dimensions are adopted to characterise the concept of human nature. The ontological dimension refers to the relationship between the human being and nature and/or the metaphysical world. The social dimension characterises relationships with other people. The individual dimension pictures the human being as an individual. The applied model also assumes the existence of three significant levels of human nature: action, motivation (which is the source, among other things, of needs and emotions) and reason, will or meaning. These levels correspond to the anthropological levels of the body, the soul and the mind.
