ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to answer the question about the relation of adopted concepts of human nature to the way of understanding and practising economics. Specifically, it investigates their role in the acquisition of knowledge and in the economist’s argumentation (the context of discovery and the context of justification). It also enquires into their impact on the foundations of economics: its objective, scope and methodology. The analyses, corroborating the first hypothesis of the book, prove that the concept of human nature not only serves as assumptions allowing to build models explaining how the economy functions (the positive function), but it also has a normative function, presenting a particular behavioural pattern considered desirable/normal. In addition, it shows that the view of human nature is an important cognitive heuristic, defining the researcher’s cognitive map and directing their research, a way of justifying discoveries (cognitive individualism or holism, deduction or induction). The adopted concept of human nature influences the observer and how they perceive economic phenomena, their justification, thus affecting the goals of this cognitive process, its scope and methodology. This dependence is documented by demonstrating how homo oeconomicus impacts the way of defining economics, understanding its objective, scope and methodology.
