Thorstein Veblen

The Place of Science in Modern Civilization

It is commonly held that modern Christendom is superior to any and all other systems of civilized life. Other ages and other cultural regions are by contrast spoken of as lower, or more archaic, or less mature. The claim is that the modern culture is superior on the whole, not that it is the best or highest in all respects and at every point. It has, in fact, not an all-around superiority, but a superiority within a closely limited range of intellectual activities, while outside this range many other civilizations surpass that of the modern occidental peoples. But the peculiar excellence of the modern culture is of such a nature as to give it a decisive practical advantage over all other cultural schemes that have gone before or that have come into competition with it. It has proved itself fit to survive in a struggle for existence as against those civilizations which differ from it in respect of its distinctive traits. Modern civilization is peculiarly matter-of-fact. It contains many elements that are not of this character, but these other elements do not belong exclusively or characteristically to it. The modern civilized peoples are in a peculiar degree capable of an impersonal, dispassionate insight into the material facts with which mankind has to deal. The apex of cultural growth is at this point. Compared with this trait the rest of what is com-

The Instinct of Workmanship and the Irksomeness of Labor

IT is one of the commonplaces of the received economic theory that work is irksome. Many a discussion proceeds on this axiom that, so far as regards economic matters, men desire above all things to get the goods produced by labor and to avoid the labor by which the goods are produced. In a general way the common-sense opinion is well in accord with current theory on this head. According to the common-sense ideal, the economic beatitude lies in an unrestrained consumption of goods, without work; whereas the perfect economic affliction is unremunerated labor. Man instinctively revolts at effort that goes to supply the means of life. No one will accept the proposition when stated in this bald fashion, but even as it stands it is scarcely an overstatement of what is implied in the writings of eminent economists. If such an aversion to useful effort is an integral part of human nature, then the trail of the Edenic serpent should be plain to all men, for this is a unique distinction of the human species. A consistent aversion to whatever activity goes to maintain the life of the species is assuredly found in no other species of animal. Under the selective process through which species are held to have emerged and gained their stability there is no chance for the survival of a species gifted with such an aversion to the furtherance of its own life process. If man alone is an exception from the selective norm, then the alien propensity in question must have been intruded into his make-up by some malevolent deus ex machina. Yet, for all the apparent absurdity of the thing, there is the fact. With more or less sincerity, people currently avow an aversion to useful effort. The avowal does not cover all effort, but only such as is of some use; it is, more particularly, such effort as is vulgarly recognized to be useful labor. Less

On the Nature of Capital

The knowledge of ways and means is a communal product, 517.—Access to the common stock of technological knowledge is necessary to the production of a livelihood, 524.—With the advance of the industrial arts the possession of material equipment has become a requisite to the effective use of this common stock of knowledge and skill, 527.—Hence the great advantage of owning capital goods, 530; and hence the dominant position of the owner-employer in modern economic life, 535.—Summary conclusion, 541.

Some Neglected Points in the Theory of Socialism

essay. It is not my purpose to controvert the position taken by Mr. Spencer as regards the present feasibility of any socialist scheme. The paper is mainly a suggestion, offered in the spirit of the disciple, with respect to a point not adequately covered by Mr. Spencer’s discussion, and which has received but very scanty attention at the hands of any other writer on either side of the socialist controversy. This main point is as to an economic ground, as a matter of fact,. for the existing unrest that finds expression in the demands of socialist agitators. I quote from Mr. Spencer’s essay a sentence which does fair

Credit and Prices

development of capitalism is furnished by the Antisemitic feeling which is current among so large a class in Germany. On examination, this feeling may be found to have originated and to exist most strongly in those classes which have suffered most from the transition from the handicraft to the capitalistic factory system of production. Having little understanding of the real source of their injuries, capitalism, they vent their wrath on those who represent that system, the Jews. We find, therefore, that the German is well qualified for industrial success and is especially well adapted to a highly organized capitalistic system. For all the subordinate positions in a great industry, from the scientist in the laboratory and the head of a department, down to the common unskilled laborer, he is admirably fitted by nature and training. He lacks initiative, but the development of capitalism makes this characteristic less and less indispensable among the mass of people, while it requires rather those qualities in which the German excels. The lack of initiative is supplied by the Jew, and thus we have present in the German Empire all those elements which tend to make the people of a nation industrially efficient.

Christian Morals and the Competitive System

is. But he cannot restrict himself to this problem without ignoring the greatest of human interests. The nature of reality and the meaning of worth appeal to him equally. To attain a point of view from which their relations are intelligible is the object of his search; and this involves something more than loyalty to facts; it needs equal loyalty to ideals of worth. That it is hard to maintain the attitude of impartial regard to fact, on the one hand, and to ideal, on the other, need not be denied. That it is still harder to reach the point of view that will comprehend them both harmoniously, is obvious. It may be that no philosopher has ever attained, or ever will attain, a fully satisfactory solution. He may be fated always to be a seeker. But the search is not therefore vain. Science, as we have seen, has to frame and use conceptions which go far beyond the mere data of sense-perception, and their abundant verification is evidence of a harmony between the intellect of man and the truth of things. His ideas of worth lay claim to a similar objectivity. And it is this that justifies the creative attitude of the speculative philosopher. It is because his own mind has in it something akin both to objective fact and to objective worth that he embarks on the quest for their final synthesis.

The Army of the Commonweal

Although the gold item has steadily fallen with the general Treasury balance, it is significant that the Treasury holdings of silver, reaching their highest point of over I30 millions in July, i886, have also fallen, and since the summer of I89I have never exceeded 25 millions. But in comparing these results with the percentages paid in to the New York Sub-Treasury, it is found that from the autumn of i886 to the spring of I89I the Treasury received large percentages of gold, and small percentages of silver money. This corresponds with the period of largest gold reserves, except in I889-90. The percentages of gold payments fell alarmingly in the summer of I 89I, rose once in December and January (i 892), and then remained very low until the autumn of I893, when the percentage again rose to a normial point. The period from June, I89I, to September, I893, is unequaled for the falling off of gold payments into the Treasury and the increase of payments in silver money or in United States notes. This period is comparable only with that from the summer of I884 to the autumn of i886, which was less serious. The study of the figures since I878, therefore, leads clearly to the conclusion that we are still in a period of confusion, as compared with any previous year, but that the percentage of gold payments is again becoming normal, the fear of a possible silver standard having disappeared. The maintenance of a gold reserve, consequently, is not a question as to the standard, but one merely of income or outgo. When the income increases, the gold reserve will increase.

El estatus bárbaro de las mujeres

Traduccion de El status barbaro de las mujeres originariamente publicado en el boletin americano de Sociologia, 1899, 4, 503-514). Examina desde la vision antropologica del siglo XIX, el papel de la mujer en las formas primitivas de las comunidades economicas humanas. Mantiene que en las comunidades depredadoras, las mujeres eran tratadas como cautivas (lo que a menudo era literalmente asi) y como propiedad, de esta manera relegadas a posiciones de servidumbre. Se estudian varias formas de matrimonio en relacion con las comunidades culturales del oeste, centrandose en el concepto de mujer como propiedad familiar. Los ritos magicos y religiosos que tienen que ver con el matrimonio producen una imagen de la mujer como cautiva, con ceremonias que imitan la adquisicion de esposas y sirvientes mediante los pillajes de las guerras. Se argumenta que esta percepcion de la mujer se conserva en la cultura occidental hasta que mejoran los sistemas economicos y se desarrollan las sociedades industriales.