Veblen Instinct of Workmanship pg 13-18

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Veblen pg 13-18

Instincts are inherited is the first statement of this section.  People do not respond to an external stimulus in the same way.  There is a makeup called the “spiritual nature” or human nature”.  Veblen argues that the degree of importance or influence of each instinct in each varies as well as their interactions vary as well. He talks about instincts being secondary or emerging out of the confluence of other factors.  They would vary amongst even the same race or group of people.

We definitely see Veblen utilized some form of Darwinian evolution.  He discusses how amongst any group of people there will be a wide variety of instincts emerging. Some may even be so out of the average that they become a threat to the community. He suggests that these extremes may be selected out over time (although this certainly seems questionable and it is unclear which characteristics he specifically views as disserviceable).

Veblen then goes on to write that, “the viability of European mankind under these institutional changes, and dependent on the spiritual fitness of inherited human nature successfully and enduringly  to carry on the altered schemes of life so imposed by on these peoples by the growth of their own culture” (Veblen, 1914, pg. 18).  This seems to say that as culture changes a person must be able to adapt to remain successful.  It is stated as cultural change is imposed or a force for which they themselves do not really control.

A slight detour - Nuno Orlenas (2020) give us some ideas regarding what Veblen might have meant when writing about a “scheme of life”.  The question raised, as I interpret it, does a scheme here refer to something in the human mind only of how things should work and are organized or to something that exists outside the human mind as an element of “reality”. This is a very difficult and philosophical challenging concept in my mind. Another question is why does this distinction matter. I think it matters because it would help us interpret what Veblen specifically means and how we might apply his analysis to other situations. Nuno Orleans is responding to a piece written by Tony Lawson that Veblen was expressing himself merely in terms of ideas within the human mind when referring to institutions or schemes of life.  This is a debate that will probably not be easily resolved. However, I am proceeding as if Veblen meant both: ideas of the mind are important for institutions and institutional change but that physical and material forces also impact these ideas and shape and change them.

Given that detour, what are we make of those statements of Veblen.  The “scheme of life” has changed in the above statement so I take this to be that there are changes outside of any individual or even of group of individuals minds that has changed, this is not merely ideals of how life should proceed.  The question is whether the spiritual or human nature of the people involved can fit or adapt to the “altered scheme of life”.  

An important point is that Veblen uses the word “ institution” on pages 17 and then subtexts that word with the phrase, legal and customary. This is the first time we have seen in this book Veblen refer to the nature of institutions possibly being legal or codified and also customary or cultural in nature as well. After this he uses the word “unremitting” to describe changes and adaptations.  These changes are inducing new responses from the same set of instincts.

The last sentence of this paragraph gives us a flavor of the Veblenian dynamics, “such limitations imposed on cultural growth by native proclivities ill suited to civilized life are sufficiently visible in several directions” (Veblen, pg. 18). Veblen clearly believes that some groups won't survive as they are currently constituted and can’t adapt to an “altered scheme of life’.


 Martins, Nuno Ornelas. "Reconsidering the notions of process, order and stability in Veblen." Cambridge Journal of Economics 44.5 (2020)

 Lawson, Tony. "Process, order and stability in Veblen." Cambridge Journal of Economics 39.4 (2015): 993-1030.

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