Veblen, Marshall and neoclassical economics

Alfred Marshall is often depicted as a pioneer of neoclassical economics almost as if this is a label he embraces and promotes. Yet neoclassical economics is not a category Marshall deploys but a term Thorstein Veblen introduces in characterising Marshall. Veblen coins the term neoclassical to identify an ontological discrepancy in the work of a specific group of his contemporaries, a prominent figure among whom is Marshall. Veblen’s view is that Marshall and other neoclassicals discern features of social reality that suggest a tentative recognition of a causal processual social ontology of the type Veblen associates with modern evolutionary approaches and yet also remain staunchly committed to a taxonomic conception of science underpinned by a quite different set of ontological presuppositions. Veblen’s assessment of Marshall is brief and assertive. In this paper it is argued that the ontological discrepancy interpretation of Marshall, that Veblen first sketched, can convincingly be filled out, has substantial merit and is of importance in developing an adequate appreciation of Marshall.

John Maynard Keynes Between Old and New Institutionalism

The article considers the possible compatibility (in epistemological and ontological terms) of the conceptions of convention and institutions in the thought of John Maynard Keynes, Thorstein Veblen and Douglass North. We argue, first, that while Veblen suggests an approach to institutions based on instincts, North sustains an approach to institutions based on rational choice, which implies distinct conceptions about institutions and the social world. We then present Keynes's ontological commitments and the epistemological implications of his ontology. We conclude that there is a background ontological compatibility between Keynes and the late North in that both accept that the socioeconomic world is fundamentally uncertain and non-ergodic; also that Keynes is epistemologically closer to North than Veblen in studying the economy as a market system embedded in social institutions; and finally that Keynes's treatment of individual action is closer to Veblen’s than North’s, in that both Keynes and Veblen see human action as based on instincts and not only on rationality.

WHY ECONOMICS IS AN EVOLUTIONARY, MATHEMATICAL SCIENCE: HOW COULD VEBLEN’S VIEW OF ECONOMICS HAVE BEEN SO DIFFERENT THAN PEIRCE’S?

More than a century ago, one of the most famous essays ever written in American economics appeared in the Quarterly Journal of Economics: “Why is Economics Not an Evolutionary Science?” There, Thorstein Veblen claimed that economics was too dominated by a mechanistic view to address the problems of economic life. Since the world and the economy had come to be viewed from an evolutionary perspective after Charles Darwin, it was rather straightforward to argue that the increasingly abstract mathematical character of economics was non-evolutionary. However, Veblen had studied with a first-rate intellect, Charles Sanders Peirce, attending his elementary logic class. If Peirce had written about the future of economics in 1898, it would have been very different than Veblen’s essay. Peirce could have written that economics should become an evolutionary mathematical science and that much of classical and neoclassical economics could be interpreted from an evolutionary perspective.

Crowned sisters: object analysis of court dress during Queen Alexandra and Empress Marie Feodorovna's influential reigns

This Major Research Paper examines female court dress regulations during Queen Alexandra of England and her younger sister, Empress Marie Feodorovna of Russia’s tenures as societal heads during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Through object analysis of a court gown of Queen Alexandra’s from the Royal Ontario Museum, and a Russian Maid of Honour’s court gown from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, this research compares how each nation utilized court dress to express wealth, and if the court dress of each nation could communicate the wearer’s court rank within a foreign court. While both nation’s court dress communicated wealth, the motives were different: England’s court dress was highly influenced by fashion trends, whereas Imperial Russian court dress was unchanging in its appearance as its primary purpose was to display a national character. Combining the analysis of each court gown with secondary research and the theory of Thorstein Veblen regarding luxury dress, this paper concludes that each nation’s court dress was highly communicative of a wearer’s rank and wealth.

Crowned sisters: object analysis of court dress during Queen Alexandra and Empress Marie Feodorovna's influential reigns

This Major Research Paper examines female court dress regulations during Queen Alexandra of England and her younger sister, Empress Marie Feodorovna of Russia’s tenures as societal heads during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Through object analysis of a court gown of Queen Alexandra’s from the Royal Ontario Museum, and a Russian Maid of Honour’s court gown from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, this research compares how each nation utilized court dress to express wealth, and if the court dress of each nation could communicate the wearer’s court rank within a foreign court. While both nation’s court dress communicated wealth, the motives were different: England’s court dress was highly influenced by fashion trends, whereas Imperial Russian court dress was unchanging in its appearance as its primary purpose was to display a national character. Combining the analysis of each court gown with secondary research and the theory of Thorstein Veblen regarding luxury dress, this paper concludes that each nation’s court dress was highly communicative of a wearer’s rank and wealth.

Reflexiones sobre el método en economía desde la teoría del consumo

El presente documento reflexiona sobre el uso del método inductivo y deductivo en el análisis del consumo que realizaron dos autores del siglo XIX: Thorstein Veblen y Carl Menger, respectivamente. Se plantea que en el debate metodológico del siglo XIX cobró poca relevancia el ejercicio de constatación empírica de planteamientos teóricos a raíz de la conciencia del carácter limitado de la teoría. Sobre esta base, las teorías del consumo se construyeron a partir de propuestas analíticas propias del razonamiento deductivo sobre tres premisas apriorísticas básicas: individuo asocial, insaciabilidad y orientación a los bienes. Sin embargo, este programa de investigación se ha degenerado en el sentido de Lakatos por los cuestionamientos de Veblen, Galbraith, Keynes y Akerman entre otros. De ahí que para favorecer la construcción de un programa de investigación progresivo en términos metodológicos y empíricos sea necesaria la integración de los métodos deductivo e inductivo en economía y el avance hacia presupuestos teóricos consistentes con realidades históricas cambiantes.

CONSUMERISM OF LEISURE CLASS IN SINGAPORE IN KEVIN KWAN’S CRAZY RICH ASIANS: A SOCIOLOGICAL APPROACH

This research entitled “Consumerism of Leisure Class in Singapore in Kevin Kwan’s Crazy Rich Asians: A Sociological Approach”. The purpose of this study is to analyze the leisure class reflected in Singapore in the novel Crazy Rich Asians. In addition, the aim of this research is to reveal the consumerism of leisure class in Crazy Rich Asians. This novel contained the aspect about the style of consumer in Singapore. This study used the mimetic approach by M.H. Abrams. The research used qualitative method to analyze the data. This study is used two main concepts of theory of leisure class by Thorstein Veblen, these are conspicuous leisure and conspicuous consumption. The research applied the data of Singaporeans leisure class in the book Understanding Singaporeans: Values, Lifestyle, Aspirations and Consumption Behaviours by Keng et al. This study also applied the concept of uniquely Singaporean mindset in the book entitled The Cult of the Luxury Brand: Inside Asia’s Love affair with Luxury by Chadha and Paul as a tool to analyze the consumerism of leisure class in the novel Crazy Rich Asians. In this study, the researcher found two main results. First, this study indicated conspicuous leisure as a signal of leisure class in Crazy Rich Asians based on seven leisure activities of Singaporean. They are sports, social, self-improvement, various charity, travel, home, and other activities. Second, the study discover the consumerism of leisure class in the novel Crazy Rich Asians and uniquely Singaporean mindset as a main result of consumerism of leisure class in Singapore reflected in the novel Crazy Rich Asians.