ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to verify the second hypothesis concerning the determinants of the growing differentiation of and changes in the economic concepts of human nature. Among those factors, a key role is played by the increasing complexity of economic processes accompanied by socio-cultural and environmental developments, challenging the heterodox approaches to construct concepts of human nature dependent on the social and natural environments. Another determinant is the change in knowledge about a human being. It offers other explanations for the behaviour of the economic actor (e.g. the significance of emotions, the impact of the context, the role of culture), which can be an important source of developments in assumptions about human nature in economics. Evolving colloquial and scientific views of human nature are of relevance as well. Many economists are interested in these changes and discern their potential in setting new paths for economics faced with new challenges. Therefore, it is no wonder that heterodox economics often refers to the cultural, social, cognitive and biologically determined views of human nature. Finally, the roles of the distinguished factors of changes in the concept of human nature are illustrated using the example of the anthropological assumptions adopted by Adam Smith.
