The Place of Science in Modern Civilisation, and Other EssaysVeblen, Thorstein
Philosophy
The Place of Science in Modern Civilisation, and Other Essays
Veblen, Thorstein
Economics; Science
The characteristic in which these business employments resemble one
another, and in which they differ from the mechanical occupations as
well as from other non-economic employments, is that they are concerned
primarily with the phenomena of value--with exchange or market values
and with purchase and sale--and only indirectly and secondarily, if at
all, with mechanical processes. What holds the interest and guides and
shifts the attention of men within these employments is the main
chance. These activities begin and end within what may broadly be called
"the higgling of the market." Of the industrial employments, in the
stricter sense, it may be said, on the other hand, that they begin and
end outside the higgling of the market. Their proximate aim and effect
is the shaping and guiding of material things and processes. Broadly,
they may be said to be primarily occupied with the phenomena of material
serviceability, rather than with those of exchange value. They are taken
up with phenomena which make the subject matter of Physics and the other
material sciences.
The business man enters the economic life process from the pecuniary
side, and so far as he works an effect in industry he works it through
the pecuniary dispositions which he makes. He takes thought most
immediately of men's convictions regarding market values; and his
efforts as a business man are directed to the apprehension, and commonly
also to the influencing of men's beliefs regarding market values. The
objective point of business is the diversion of purchase and sale into
some particular channel, commonly involving a diversion from other
channels. The laborer and the man engaged in directing industrial
processes, on the other hand, enter the economic process from the
material side; in their characteristic work they take thought most
immediately of mechanical effects, and their attention is directed to
turning men and things to account for the compassing of some material
end. The ulterior aim, and the ulterior effect, of these industrial
employments may be some pecuniary result; work of this class commonly
results in an enhancement, or at least an alteration, of market values.
Conversely, business activity may, and in a majority of cases it
perhaps does, effect an enhancement of the aggregate material wealth of
the community, or the aggregate serviceability of the means at hand; but
such an industrial outcome is by no means bound to follow from the
nature of the business man's work.
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