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
A result of the acceptance of the theoretical distinction here attempted
between industrial and pecuniary employments and an effective
recognition of the pecuniary basis of the modern economic organisation
would be to dissociate the two ideas of productivity and remuneration.
In mathematical language, remuneration could no longer be conceived and
handled as a "function" of productivity,--unless productivity be taken
to mean pecuniary serviceability to the person who pays the
remuneration. In modern life remuneration is, in the last analysis,
uniformly obtained by virtue of an agreement between individuals who
commonly proceed on their own interest in point of pecuniary gain. The
remuneration may, therefore, be said to be a "function" of the pecuniary
service rendered the person who grants the remuneration; but what is
pecuniarily serviceable to the individual who exercises the discretion
in the matter need not be productive of material gain to the community
as a whole. Nor does the algebraic sum of individual pecuniary gains
measure the aggregate serviceability of the activities for which the
gains are got.
In a community organized, as modern communities are, on a pecuniary
basis, the discretion in economic matters rests with the individuals, in
severalty; and the aggregate of discrete individual interests nowise
expresses the collective interest. Expressions constantly recur in
economic discussions which imply that the transactions discussed are
carried out for the sake of the collective good or at the initiative of
the social organism, or that "society" rewards so and so for their
services. Such expressions are commonly of the nature of figures of
speech and are serviceable for homiletical rather than for scientific
use. They serve to express their user's faith in a beneficent order of
nature, rather than to convey or to formulate information in regard to
facts.
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