ソースタイン・ヴェブレンの資本概念 : 論文「資本の性質I」をめぐって(ヴェブレンとミッチェルの理論体系,総合研究)

概要

論文の詳細を見る
Thorstein B. Veblen was, together with John R. Commons and Wesley C. Mitchell, one of the founders of the Institutional School in the United States, the former in particular is regarded as the father of this school. Veblen became famous overnight with the publication of The Theory of the Leisure Class in 1899. This study was followed by The Theory of Business Enterprise in 1904 and The Instinct of Workmanship in 1915. Veblen's greatest contribution to economic science was that he placed technology at the center of his economic analysis and clarified the position and role of the engineer. Technology is capable of effecting fundamental changes in economy and society, and the engineer has had a large influence within economic society as a definite class. In this sense, present-day significance of studying Veblen's economic theory has finally become apparent. It is for this reason that I have taken up Veblen's economics as part of my research. Veblen's main concern lies in explaining the character and function of American capitalism as it entered into a monopolistic stage. The resulting work was critical of the economic theory of John Bates Clark and Irving Fisher, which had no close causal relationship with the actual conditions of American capitalism that needed to be explained. In particular, Veblen made clear the severe limits of their theory of capital in his "Professor Clark's Economics" of 1908 and again in "Fisher's Capital and Income" of 1908. Since Veblen's own concept of capital, as put forth in these papers, was rather comprehensive in nature, more in depth research on his concept of capital was called for. Therefore, I chose to begin with his "On the Nature of Capital I: The Productivity of Capital Goods," included in The Place of Science in Modern Civilisation, and Other Essays in 1919. According to Veblen, capital must be explained as a cultural phenomenon in human life. Therefore, he investigates the properties of capital based on his institutional approach. He also develops a unique view concerning capital. Veblen looks to technological knowledge, which he refers to as the common stock of the community, for the source of his concept of capital. This intangible knowledge transforms physical materials, which are a simple subject of labor, into capital goods and in turn converts these capital goods into means of production. Thus, technological knowledge is important in that it ultimately develops into intangible assets in modern economic life. Veblen also pondered the properties of capital as a common stock in the life history of Western civilization and, further, derived into the effect of pecuniary contamination on capital in the large-scale industrial system. According to Veblen, the properties of capital in economic life are determined by accumulated experience, man's creativity, and the technological knowledge that man himself created for his own use. Thus, physical capital goods are transformed into means of production only through the technological knowledge possessed by an industrial society. It is for this reason that technological knowledge is an important key, in clarifying Veblen's concept of capital. In this sense, we must recognize that Veblen sometimes envisions the two states of capital both physical and intangible as being mutually penetrating. In summary, there was great significance in reexamining Veblen's concept of capital as the work of one of the institutionalists.
日本大学の論文
1993-05-20

著者

佐藤光宣
帝京大学法学部

ソースタイン・ヴェブレンの資本概念 : 論文「資本の性質I」をめぐって(ヴェブレンとミッチェルの理論体系,総合研究)

スポンサーリンク

概要

著者

関連論文

スポンサーリンク