Some contributions of Thorstein B. Veblen to sociology

155 Pages·07.432 MB·English

by  Massaro, Nick

SOME CONTRIBUTIONS OP THORSTEIN B* VEBLEN TO SOCIOLOGY
A Thesis
Presented to the
Faculty of the Department of Sociology
U niversity of Southern C alifornia
In P a rtia l F ulfillm ent
of the Requirements for the Degree
Master of Arts
by
Nick Massaro
August 1950
UMI Number: EP65695
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This thesis, written by
NICK MASSARO
under the guidance of h..%3.. Faculty Committee,
and approved by all its members, has been
presented to and accepted by the Council on
Graduate Study and Research in partial fulfill­
ment of the requirements for the degree of
MASTER OP ARTS
Faculty Committee
TABLE OP CONTENTS
CHAPTER TAGrE
I . THE PROBLEM AND DEFINITIONS OP TERMS USED . . . . 1
The P ro b le m ................................... 1
The Importance of the s t u d y .......................................... 2
D efin itio n s of terms used 4
Class . . . . . . . ..................................... . . . . . 4
Leisure ......................................... 5
Emulation . . ............................................... . . . . . . 7
Conspicuous consumption . . • • • .......................... 8
Social sta tu s • • • • • • • . • • • • • • • • 9
Conspicuous waste . . . . . . ..................................... 9
Social in s titu tio n s .............................. 10
In s tin c ts ....................................................................... 11
Social change 12
C ultural lag • • • • • • • • . 13
Economics . . . .................................... . . . . . . . 14
Sociology ......................................................... . . . . . . 14
G estalt • • . . • • . . . . . . . . 15
I I . REVIEW OF LITERATURE AND MATERIALS USED..................... 16
Primary sources • • • • • « • • • • • • • • • • 16
Selected works of T horstein Vetolen . • • • • 15
Secondary sources . . . . . . . . . 16
References in so cio lo gical tex ts and
p erio d icals 18
CHAPTER , PAGE
i l l . BIOGRAPHICAL MOTES........................ 19
Personal H istory of Thorstein Veblen .......................... 19
Major i n t e r e s t s ........................................................................ 30
P rofessional h isto ry .............................................................. 34
S ociological influences . . . . . .......................... 39
Veblen1s influence on S ociologists .......................... 48
IV. MAJOR CONTRIBUTIONS OF THORSTEIN VEBLEN.................... 56
Methodology: a s tru c tu ra l, fu n ctio n al
a p p ro a c h ..........................................• • • • .............................. 56
In s titu tio n a l approach to the so c ial sciences . 69
New C o n c e p ts ........................................................ 83
Social c l a s s ................................... 83
In s tin c t of w o rk m a n sh ip ......................... 85
Leisure c l a s s .............................. 86
Canons of re p u ta b ility and em ulation ..................... 86
Canon of s t a t u s ........................................................................ 89
Canon of conspicuous consumption and
conspicuous waste .............................................................. 91
Canon of b e llic o s ity ......................................................... 92
Technology as a facto r In so cial change . . . . 94
C riticism of Marxian ideology . . . . • • • • • I l l
V. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION ................................126
BIBLIOGRAPHY......................... 132
CHAPTER I
THE PROBIEM AND DEFINITION OF THE TERMS USED
I* THE PROBLEM
Thorsteln Bundle Veblen has been mainly c la s s ifie d as
an economist £ however, in h is own opinion, there is no
a b s tra c t science of economics. Economics is only one aspect
of the to ta l so c ia l p ro cess. As Robert L* B uffus, who lived
w ith Veblen a t Standford, r e la te s :
Veblen was sc e p tic a l about the science of
economics as a thing standing by i t s e l f above
o r below human n a tu re .i
This th e s is w ill p resen t some of the so cio lo g ical
th eo ries and p rin c ip le s upon which his an aly sis of so c ia l
stru c tu re and economics r e s ts . I t has been said th a t many
so c io lo g ists consider him a so c io lo g ist. The ch ief reason
fo r the neglect of Veblen among the economists was the fa c t
th a t he was so much more than an economic th e o r is t. As
George H erbert Mead has so a p tly said :
Veblen broke down the conventional d iv isio n
between economics, ethnology, anthropology,
psychology and the p hysical sciences: in b oth
su b ject m atter and methodology, he divorced
him self from his contem poraries, fo r he had the
sy n th etic approach of the genuine so c io lo g ist.
^ Robert L. B uffus, The Innocents a t Cedro, (New York:
The Macmillan Company, 1944), p . 14.
^ George H erbert Mead, Review of **The Nature of Peace
and the Terms of i t s P e rp etu atio n , 11 Journal of P o litic a l
Economy, 35:755, Ju ly , 1918.
In the same v ein , Charles Hunt Page, in h is te x t, Class and
American Sociology* introduces h is main problem of c la s s ,
i t s a n aly sis and function by re fe rrin g p rim arily to
T horstein Veblen and h is role in the development of American
3
Sociology*
I I THE UPORTANCE OP THE STUDY
Why is Veblen becoming more im portant in the so c ia l
sciences? Why should we take cognisance of h is ideas and
concepts today? Because his methodology and a n a ly tic a l
schemata p o in t toward a more refin e d con ceptu alization , which
may be seen in the works of such men as Durkheim, Sorokin,
P areto , Weber, Parsons, Merton and o th e rs • Promising work is
also being done in fie ld s re la te d to sociology, and in other
f ie ld s , examples of which are afforded by Weiner in b io ­
p hysics, Alexander and Proram in a n a ly tic a l psychology.
Carpenter in p o etry , and R eiser in philosophy* As Lewis Mum-
ford has su ccinctly summed i t up:
V eblenrs thought should not be confined to economic
c irc le s ; i t should be f ilte r in g through and p en etratin g
every pore of our in te lle c tu a l l i f e *4
By reviewing some of h is sociolo g ical co n trib u tio n s
to p resen t so c ia l thought as found in the works of
^ C harles Hunt Page, Class and American Sociology
(Hew York: The D ial P ress, 1940), p* x iii*
A
Lewis Mumford, “S tick of Dynamite Wrapped Like
Candy11, Saturday Review of L ite r a tu r e , 11:41?, January, 1935*
3
Lewis Mumford, S tu art Chase, Wesley M itch ell, Kenneth Burke,
Max L erner, P a tric k Geddes, Stephen Leacock,
John Dos Passes, Ernest Sutherland B ates, John Chamberlain--
*
and many others can be added to the l i s t of complete or par­
t i a l “V eblenitesw?-the extent of his influence upon his own
5
and a la te r generation can be more properly measured* Even
John Dewey has expressed his indebtedness to Veblen for many
of his id eas, e sp e c ia lly those dealing w ith the so cial
6
process*
Professor Daniel Aaron asks the qu estio n: Why has
Veblen1s influence been so pervasive and far-reach in g? Many
notable c u ltu ra l and economic an aly sts have found fa u lt w ith
business e n te rp ris e , w ith i ts emphasis upon the amassing of
money without considering its re s u lta n t c u ltu ra l ram ifica­
tio n s. The annals of h isto ry rev eal th at so cio -relig io u s
w rite rs , the “Muckrakers" of the Theodore Roosevelt e ra , and
many so -called progressives have exposed the gross inequal­
i t i e s of our so ciety w ith great and consummate s k ill and
passion. In th is re sp e c t, Aaron w rites?
Veblenfs current p op ularity must be a ttrib u te d
in part to the relevance of his so c ia l and economic
id eas, his views on war, re lig io n , education, busi­
ness and manners are as pertin en t today as when he
5 Daniel Aaron, “T horstein Veblen? M oralist and Rhet­
o r ic ia n ,” Antioch Review, 7?381-90, September, 1947.
6 Stanley Mathew D augert, The Philosophy of T horstein
V eblen, (New York? King's Crown P ress, l95b}, p. v.
4
f i r s t wrote them beginning around the turn of
the cen tu ry . 7
Arthur K. Davis sums up the importance of V eblen^
theo ries by sta tin g :
Few other Americans have had as much Influence
on the so cial thought of th e ir tim es. Yet he l e f t
no "school” to elaborate h is point of view.
I l l DEFINITIONS OF TERMS USED
C lass. This is a concept th at has grown in meaning
since Karl Marx used i t to show that h isto ry was oniy^ the
/
m an ifestatio n of classes in constant struggle fo r supremacy
in the s ta te . For Marx, h isto ry unfolded toward a fo re ­
ordained goal through class struggle toward a c la ssle ss
so ciety .
In the middle of the tw entieth century, the re s u lt of
th is utopian ideology is seen in the drive toward world
dom ination by Soviet R ussia, predicated upon th is In sid io u s
theory. For Veblen there were no foreordained g o als: only a
ceaseless Darwinian process of continuous cum ulative change.
Veblen used the term C lass, w ithout the im plication
of c o n flic t. He used i t w ith a dual meaning, one of which
was a socio-economic aggregate where groups are d is tin c t from
7 D aniel Aaron, 0£. c i t ., p. 383.
Q
Arthur K. D avis, "Sociological Elements in Veblen's
Economic Theory” , P o litic a l Economics, 53:140, June, 1945.
5
each other on an economic b a sis. The other was based on a
so cial-p sych o lo gical an aly sis of those who shared in common
values and, to some degree, common a sp ira tio n s .
For Veblen, in co n trast to Marx, America is not a
so c iety of closed sta tu s or of sharply drawn c la sse s. The
d is tin c tio n between pecuniary and in d u s tria l occupations is
a more accurate analysis of the American situ a tio n than one
c
Q
predicated upon c lass c o n flic ts ,
Cooley’s d e fin itio n of the term class combined
elements found in Marx and Veblen:
A group separated and segregated in terms of
s p e c ia liz a tio n of function and having a measure
of in te rn a l u n ity and cohesion, such as a ru lin g
c la s s , a p rie s tly c la s s , or a so c ia l c la ss . More
lo o sely used, it re fe rs to any p art of a population
having common c h a ra c te ristic s or sim ilar so cial
s ta tu s , as fo r example, an educated c la ss , the
middle c la s s , the wage-earning c la s s , e tc .
A Social class may be defined as a major group
w ithin an economic sustem whose members are recog­
n izab ly and s ig n ific a n tly alik e in th e ir re la tio n s
to a basic d iv isio n of economic power or function.
In other words, a so cial class is an economic
group whose members are a lik e in th e ir re la tio n s to
the process of g ettin g a liv in g . 10
L eisu re. The cessatio n of work was the great end of
the a c q u isitio n of w ealth, but Veblen1s use of the term has
9 /
Max L erner, The Portable Veblen (New York: The
Viking P ress, 1948), pp. 30-36.
Edward B. R euter, Handbook of Sociology (New York:
The Dryden P ress, 1941), p. 911.