Appropriation, beliefs, and inculcation: Some other connections between American Pragmatism and Veblen’s conspicuous consumer

Felipe Almeida () and Manuel Ramon Luz ()

Brazilian Journal of Political Economy, 2023, vol. 43, issue 1, 125-144

Abstract: Thorstein Veblen was a founding father of the original institutional economics.Veblen’s first book, The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899), introduced to economists aninterdisciplinary perspective to understand consumers’ decision-making. This perspective relied on the processual nature of instincts, habits, and institutions. Veblen’s ideas on humanbehavior were not completely original, and it has been widely recognized that some ofhis insights clearly reference the teachings of the American pragmatic school of philosophy.In light of this, our study offers an interpretation of Veblen’s ideas on consumer behaviorthrough the viewpoints of the main thinkers of the pragmatist school of his time. This studyexplores some important themes within pragmatism, such as William James’s concept ofappropriation, Charles Peirce’s understanding of belief and social impulse, and John Dewey’sideas on socialization and the inculcation of habits. Based on these references, we seek togenerate new insights into Veblen’s perspective on consumers’ decision-making in broaderterms and at the same time preserve his main philosophical references. JEL Classification: B15; B52.

Keywords: Thorstein Veblen; conspicuous consumption; pragmatism; pragmatic philosophy; institutional economics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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