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Building on the Ideas of Thorstein Veblen

Paper Session

Saturday, Jan. 6, 2024 8:00 AM - 10:00 AM (CST)

Marriott Riverwalk, Valero
Hosted By: Association for Evolutionary Economics
  • Chair: Matias Vernengo, Bucknell University

Thorstein Veblen and His Underlying Philosophical Influences

John Battaile Hall
,
Portland State University

Abstract

Along his journey through America’s system of higher education, Veblen took to studying Philosophy. With backgrounds in contributions of Peirce—and also Kant—should we not also consider whether Veblen was influenced by Friedrich Nietzsche? In the vast corpus of his writings, Veblen offers no references to Nietzsche’s thinking. Intellectual speculation leads us to quickly recognize that Veblen, like Nietzsche considered “institutions,” especially how institutions might restrict society and also the life process for the individual. Famously, Veblen refers to the restrictive character of “imbecile institutions.” Nietzsche, along with composer Richard Wagner, sought to destroy institutions that had those belonging to civilization so hemmed in. In addition, Nietzsche identified himself as oriented towards a Dionysian view of reality and life. What this means is that the disruptive character that appears in his thinking registers as something on the order of the Nietzschean-Dionysian trademark. Why do we continue to read and consider the ideas of both Nietzsche and Veblen? This paper argues that while Nietzsche should be considered as a philosopher influenced by the Dionysian tradition, Veblen should be considered as a wayward Dionysian philosopher who vented his spleen by attacking institutions constructed under influences of economic orthodoxy. Finally, when one reads Nietzsche’s understanding of the “last man,” does this section found in his book: Thus Spake Zarathustra, not seem similar and running parallel to what Veblen describes as the “common man?”

Rethinking Instinct Theory from a Darwinian Perspective

Luwei Zhao
,
Kunming University of Science and Technology

Abstract

The popularity of instinct theory—the core of Veblen’s evolutionary methodology—waned with the rise of behavioral psychology in the 1920s, and resurges with the revival of evolutionary psychology in the 1980s. This study reexamines Darwin’s theories of natural and sexual selection within Veblen’s theory. By tracing the origin of emulation, this study explores the human struggle for existence at both inter-species and individual levels, enhancing our understanding of Veblen’s theory as rooted in Darwinism and reinterpreted within Hodgson’s concept of emergence. Differing from Ayers’ dichotomy, analysis resituates Veblen’s instinct theory within contemporary evolutionary psychology.

Acemoglu's Scientific Palette and Disruptive Technologies

Antoon Spithoven
,
Utrecht University

Abstract

Acemoglu and the co-authors adopt a mainstream approach in articles. In their books, they exhibit a biased analysis by employing taxonomic structures, selectively choosing historical examples, and downplaying significant factors like globalization, status emulation, and collective consciousness. Their analyses, centered on individual decision-making, overlook the evolutionary perspective.
In this article, I argue that since the early 1980’s, the new ICT-based wave of monopolization/oligopolization and globalization affected income distribution negatively within countries but positively between countries. The recent advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AI), which is also dealt with by Acemoglu and Simon Johnson in their book Power and Progress, seems to increasingly affect income inequality and to strengthen the power of Big Tech. An evolutionary institutional perspective, wherein the social selection mechanism itself adjusts to changing social conditions, might provide a counterbalance to anxious AI concerns.

Veblen and the American Political Economy Tradition

Matias Vernengo
,
Bucknell University
William McColloch
,
Keene State College

Abstract

The more recent scholarship on Veblen has, to some extent, debunked the idea that he was an outsider, and that on the contrary he was entrenched in the institutions that were part of the professionalization of economics as a discipline (Edgell, 2001; Camic, 2020). This contradicts the dominant view as articulated in the classic by Joseph Dorfman (1934) that emphasized Veblen’s iconoclastic stances and his career as a nomadic academic outsider. However, while it is true that from the point of view of the sociology of the profession, Veblen was indeed an insider of the profession. However, Veblen remains and eccentric thinker in the American Political Economy tradition, in part because he was a heterodox in theory contrary to that tradition, which might have deviated at times from the dominant views on policy, but followed it in the main theoretical views.

Inequalities, Monopolies, and the Commodification of Academic Knowledge: Writing a New Chapter of The Higher Learning in America

Danielle Guizzo
,
University of Bristol

Abstract

The publication of Thorstein Veblen’s The Higher Learning in America (1904) represents a key moment within the Original Institutionalist scholarship. The book exposes the rituals and issues of academic prestige, vocational training, and the concerns with the rise of a business model of higher education in contrast to civic learning. 120 years later, can Veblen’s masterpiece offer novel insights to our contemporary model of universities and knowledge creation? In a context in which academic knowledge has (paradoxically) become commodified whilst it relies on monopolies and inequalities by those who hold, distribute, and access knowledge, this article unpacks some of Veblen’s timely contributions. Specifically, it aims at expanding the emerging field of the Political Economy of Knowledge, exploring the institutional mechanisms through which knowledge is determined, the relationships of knowledge dependency and/or knowledge inequalities between agents or countries, and how educational agendas are constituted by changing conceptions of society, governance, the state, and the market. By bridging a gap between the Original Institutional literature, the Political Economy of Education, and Political Philosophy, I suggest how Veblen’s work can shed light on the inconsistencies, challenges, and potential solutions of contemporary knowledge production and dissemination between universities and the public around the world.
JEL Classifications
  • B5 - Current Heterodox Approaches
  • B3 - History of Economic Thought: Individuals