Abstract:

The aim of the article is to try to identify the paradigms of economic thought that determine the perception of natural resources and ways of managing them. The analysis of paradigms was carried out in the perspective of three periods of world economic development: before the industrial revolution, from the industrial revolution to the post-industrial society and in the contemporary period of formation of the immaterial economy. Within the framework of the identified paradigms, the views of selected economists, representative of them in the opinion of the author of the article,  are presented. The economic processes resulting from the accepted paradigms are indicated. The concept of the circular economy was presented as a result of the evolution of paradigms of economic thought. The history of its formation and its basic assumptions are presented. Statistical data taken from Eurostat and UN databases were used.