What the History of Economic Thought Can Teach Us

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to outline the perspective of the history of economic thought as a important way of looking at economic problems. The author discuses reasons why this perspective can be more useful than others and chooses the widely discussed concept of the human being in economics as an example. She discusses what characteristics different schools of economic thought attribute to the human being. Based on attitudes to human rationality, pursued goals or the meaning of social context, she distinguishes four basic models of the economic agent: classical, neoclassical, Marxian and heterodox. The author points out the links between changing anthropological assumptions and shifts in the dominant economic paradigm. She argues that with the current economic crisis we are witnessing a change in the perception of human behavior towards the heterodox one.