opportunity cost addendum

By
From Samuels and Schmid-see number 9 through 11:


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

. Veblen ch. 5 Instinct of Workmanship pg. 194-201

By
  Vebeln starts this section with a discussion of those peoples of northern Europe who have apparently made the greatest advances in technological proficiency in the industrial age.  His claim is that they have not been under a filly patriarchal system and its attendant authoritative rule of government. They have been fragments in forms of local self government and have shown a  degree of skepticism towards religion for example. The important point has lees to do with the specifics of Veblen's analysis than with how he is performing a cultural analysis to understand how habits of thought or institutions are formed and altered over time that explain the economy. He writes that northern Europeans were unable for whatever reason to excel in building great artifacts or civilizations but did excel in fighting and small-scale crafts. As he writes, “their best efficiency has rather run to those bull-headed deeds of force and those mechanic arts that touch closely on the domain o...
Read more

Veblen's Instinct of Workmanship pg. 63 - 73

By
 In this first section of our reading today, Veblen acknowledges that the impact of ceremony on tool using will vary by the type of activity being undertaken.    This first set of paragraphs immediately points to relative degree of ceremony versus industry comparison if we want to sue that terminology.   this is opposed to the typical depiction which seems to be that ceremony and industry are simply opposed parts of a binary dichotomy. Veblen also notes how slow the development of human using tools seems to be in general. The next section points to the issue of the "state of the industrial arts", a term Veblen will constantly use throughout his writings to indicate the state of tools and technology in a human society.  The rest of this section highlights differences between various cultures in terms of their development and uptake of tools and technology.  He discusses the native culture of the northern Arctic and how they were able to develop appropri...
Read more

Veblen's Instinct of Workmanship pg. 175-186

By
 Veblen here is continuing to help us understand how he views the shaping of human use of technology and workmanship.  A statement perhaps that best summarizes his views is, "therefore on the facts made use of in the industrial arts....and the immediate question is as to the bias or drift of the pecuniary culture as it affects the apprehension of facts serviceable for technological ends". Veblen's view is that facts are not just lying around to be picked up but are shaped by the culture and habit of thought that exist in the community at any given time. I am curious to see if Veblen ever addresses mutations or when people decide to go against the habits of thought in their community? This seems to be such an important to how change occurs and is important to so many human stories we tell. Veblen takes another stab at religion writing that, God throws a deeper shadow of ignobility over the material side of life, and makes any workmanlike preoccupation with industrial effic...
Read more