The evolution of rational human concept in the economic thought system

The science of economics, which is based on the concept of rationality and which travels with it, has been in a constant change and transformation. The way that the concept of rational human goes along with the economic thought actually reveals the stages of the science of economics. Economics, which is on the way to being a science, has always been criticized with the assumption of rational individual on its basis and it has taken its strongest objections through this concept. The concept of rationality, which has been the main subject of discussion since the emergence of economics as a science and which has received the most criticism, has gained a whole new dimension with the behavioral economics and neuroeconomics approaches emerging today. In this study, the stages of the concept of rational human in the science of economics are examined and the point of origin of the rationality and the situation it has reached in the last point reached are tried to be revealed. The concept of rationality, which reflects the perspective of the individual who is the main actor of the science of economics, has always been in the highest level of interaction with the discipline itself.