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Thorstein Bunde Veblen (July 30, 1857 – August
3, 1929) was a Norwegian-American economist and
sociology|sociologist.
He obtained his B.A. at Carleton College and Ph.D.
at Yale University, with additional education at
Cornell University and Johns Hopkins University. 
The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899), a satiric
look at American society written while he taught
at the University of Chicago, is his most famous
work.  He coined the widely used phrases
"conspicuous consumption" and "pecuniary
emulation".


Thorstein Veblen's career began amidst the growth
of the disciplines of anthropology, sociology, and
psychology.  He argued that economics was
inevitably shaped by culture and that no universal
"human nature" could possibly be invoked to
explain the variety of norms and behaviors
discovered by the new science of anthropology.

One of his most important analytical contributions
was what came to be known as the "ceremonial /
instrumental dichotomy".  Veblen saw that although
every society is dependent on tools and skills to
support the "life process", every society also
appeared to have a stratified structure of status
("invidious distinctions") that ran contrary to
the imperatives of the "instrumental" (read:
"technological") aspects of group life. This led
rise to the dichotomy: the "ceremonial" was
related to the past, supporting the tribal
legends; "instrumental" was oriented toward the
technological imperative to judge value by the
ability to control future consequences. The
"Veblenian dichotomy" was a specialized variant of
the "instrumental theory of value" due to John
Dewey, with whom Veblen was to make contact
briefly at The University of Chicago. 

"The Theory of the Leisure Class" and "The Theory
of Business Enterprise" together constitute an
alternative construction on the
Neoclassical_economics|neoclassical marginalist
theories of consumption and production,
respectively. Both are clearly founded on the
application of the "Veblenian dichotomy" to
cultural patterns of behavior and are therefore
implicitly but unavoidably bound to a critical
stance; it is not possible to read Veblen with any
understanding while failing to grasp that the
dichotomy is a valuational principle at its core.
The ceremonial patterns of activity are not bound
to just any past, but rather to the one that
generated a specific set of advantages and
prejudices that underly the current structure of
rewards and power. Instrumental judgments create
benefits according to an entirely separate
criterion, and therefore are inherently
subversive. This line of analysis was more fully
and explicitly developed by Clarence E. Ayres of
the University of Texas from the 1920s.  In
addition to these two books, his monograph
Imperial Germany and the Industrial Revolution and
the essay entitled "Why Economics is not an
Evolutionary Science" have been influential in
shaping the research agenda for following
generations of social scientists.  His ideas were
also inspirational to the technocratic movement.

In 1919, Veblen, along with Charles Beard, James
Harvey Robinson and John Dewey, helped found the
New School for Social Research, which is known
today as New School University.

Veblen made his home in Nerstrand, Minnesota.

==Abbreviated Bibliography==
*The Instinct of Workmanship and the Irksomeness
of Labor, 1898
*The Theory of the Leisure Class: an economic
study of institutions, 1899
*The Theory of Business Enterprise, 1904
*The Instinct of Workmanship and the State of the
Industrial Arts, 1914
*Imperial Germany and the Industrial Revolution,
1915
*An Inquiry into the Nature and Peace and the
Terms of Its Perpetuation, 1917
*The Higher Learning In America: A Memorandum On
the Conduct of Universities By Business Men, 1918
*The vested interests and the state of the
industrial arts, 1919
*The Engineers and the Price System, 1921
*Absentee Ownership and Business Enterprise in
Recent Times, 1923
*The Laxdaela Saga, 1925

==External Links==
*Project Gutenberg e-text of
http://www.gutenberg.net/browse/BIBREC/BR833.HTM
The Theory of the Leisure Class
* e-texts
http://de.geocities.com/veblenite/works.htm -- The
Veblenite -- (Complete Works, as far as not
copyright protected, biography, bibliography and
related materials)
* Books and Translations
http://de.geocities.com/veblenite/books.htm
* Essays in Economics
http://de.geocities.com/veblenite/essays1.htm
* War Essays, Memoranda, Suggestions
http://de.geocities.com/veblenite/essays2.htm
* Miscellaneous Papers, Reviews
http://de.geocities.com/veblenite/misc.htm
* facsimile http://fax.libs.uga.edu/JX1952xV395/
An inquiry into the nature of peace and the terms
of its perpetuation ... 
**Publisher: New York, B.W. Huebsch, 1919 
* facsimile http://fax.libs.uga.edu/HB34xV395/ The
place of science in modern civilisation and other
essays
**Publisher: New York, B.W. Huebsch, 1919
* facsimile http://fax.libs.uga.edu/HD2326xV395V/
The vested interests and the state of the
industrial arts ("The modern point of view and the
new order"). 
**Publisher: New York, B.W. Huebsch, 1919

* Othercanon: Biological Metaphor shift in
Economics
http://www.othercanon.org/uploads/Sophus%20A.%20Re
inert%20Heilbronn%202003.doc