The instinct of workmanship, and the state of industrial artsVeblen, Thorstein
Philosophy
The instinct of workmanship, and the state of industrial arts
Veblen, Thorstein
Industrial arts -- History; Industries -- History; Technology -- History; Workmanship -- History
On that level of savagery on which these European stocks began, and to
which the several European racial types with their typical endowment
of instincts are presumably adapted, men appear to have lived a fairly
peaceable, though by no means an indolent life; in relatively small
groups or communities; without any of the more useful domestic animals,
though probably with some domestic plants; and busied with getting
their living by daily work. Since they survived under the conditions
offered them it is to be presumed that these men and women, say of the
early neolithic time, took instinctively and kindly to those activities
and mutual relations that would further the life of the group; and
that, on the whole, they took less kindly and instinctively to such
activities as would bring damage and discomfort on their neighbours and
themselves.[69] Any racial type of which this had not been true, under
the conditions known then to have prevailed in their habitat, must have
presently disappeared from the face of the land, and the later advance
of the Western culture would not have known their breed. Some other
racial type, temperamentally so constituted as better to meet these
requirements of survival under neolithic conditions, would have taken
their place and would have left their own offspring to populate the
region.[70]
What is known of the conditions of life in early neolithic times[71]
indicates that the first requisite of competitive survival was a
more or less close attention to the business in hand, the providing
of subsistence for the group and the rearing of offspring--a closer
attention, for instance, than was given to this business by those other
rival stocks whom the successful ones displaced; all of which throws
into the foreground as indispensable native traits of the successful
race the parental bent and the sense of workmanship, rather than those
instinctive traits that make for disturbance of the peace.[72]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account