Institutional Law and Economics: The Legal-Economic Nexus

 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...

  Veblen is taking us on a tour of the clashing interests of two camps of instincts and then institutions.  On the one side, the instinct of workmanship and the parental bent are bent towards ensuring that human life is undertaken with an eye towards accomplishing goals in an efficient manner and with the future in mind. The other side consists of the coercive and predatory nature of humanity which is reflected in “disserviceable” institutions. As he writes, “human culture in all ages presents to many imbecile usages and principles of conduct to let anyone overlook the fact that disserviceable institutions arise easily” (pg. 48, 1913). The next few pages Veblen discusses how various other instincts begin to contaminate the instinct of workmanship. He points to various “taboos, consanguinities and magical efficacies” (terms of various cultural and religious practices) come to be involved in the instinct of workmanship and in essence move the individual and the system away from ...

  In the last section of the introduction, we see Veblen's ongoing focus on a lag between human endowment of instincts which change slowly if at all and the changes in technology and the material means and ways of life.In particular he focuses on how the human race had to develop a sense of efficiency and workmanship to survive in earlier times and this is now in conflict with how society is organized today. From there we move into chapter 2, which is entitled “Contamination of Instincts in Primitive Technology”. First, Veblen makes his distinction between tropismatic or automatic behaviors that are not subject to habit and other instincts, such as workmanship that are subject to be attuned by habit of thought. From here, we get to the starting point on contamination.  Veblen states that human knowledge is cumulative and builds on itself through learning and education. He states that there is “matter-of-fact” knowledge and then there is knowledge based on “convention, inferenc...

Workmanship and the parental bent are considered by Veblen to be the two key “instincts” that further the material well-being of human beings. He states that they often work together and may be even hard to distinguish.  These can be interpreted as peoples inherent desire to do something and do things for the care and well-being of others.   Veblen has a great line when he takes on the notion of “race suicide”.  He says that the “phrase makers” (not in a good way, these are those people who are defining the conventional wisdom) try and make a thing of race suicide which thinking people disapprove of thoroughly . He also states that the parental bent means thinking of future generations well-being. Veblen was ahead of his time in our current discussion of long term sustainability.   I think he has a powerful statement on page that helps us understand the interplay of instincts when he writes that, “the instincts, all and several, though perhaps in varying degrees, are...