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

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 an interdisciplinary perspective to understand consumers’ decision-making. This perspective relied on the processual nature of instincts, habits, and institutions. Veblen’s ideas on human behavior were not completely original, and it has been widely recognized that some of his 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 behavior through the viewpoints of the main thinkers of the pragmatist school of his time. This study explores some important themes within pragmatism, such as William James’s concept of appropriation, Charles Peirce’s understanding of belief and social impulse, and John Dewey’s ideas on socialization and the inculcation of habits. Based on these references, we seek to generate new insights into Veblen’s perspective on consumers’ decision-making in broader terms and at the same time preserve his main philosophical references.