Mechanistic physiology and institutional economics: Jacques loeb and thorstein veblen

International Journal of Social Economics

Volumn 19, Issue 10-12, 1992, Pages 235-247

  Rasmussen, Charles T ^a   Tilman, Rick ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF NEVADA   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 1542456261     PISSN: 03068293     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1108/EUM0000000000515     Document Type: Article

References (31)

1. For portraits of both men by a journalist who was acquainted with them and knowledgeable about their work cf. Duffus, R., “Jacques Loeb: Mechanist” Century Magazine, Vol. 108, 1924, pp. 374-85; and The Innocents at Cedro, Macmillan, New York, NY, 1944. Loeb was born in Mayen, Germany, in 1859. He studied at the Universities of Berlin and Munich and obtained his doctorate in medicine from Strasbourg in 1884. After conducting research in Naples, Italy for several years, he emigrated to the United States in 1891. He held academic posts at Bryn Mawr, Chicago, the University of California, Berkeley, and Berlin, before joining the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research in 1910. As an experimental biologist, Loeb was famous for his work in artificial parthenogenesis. He developed see urchins from unfertilized eggs and later reared parthenogenetic frogs to sexual maturity. Loeb also did important studies of the physiology of the brain, and throughout his work he attempted to explain mental processes in terms of basic tropisms. At the time of his death in 1924 he was held in high esteem in the scientific community in both Europe and the United States.
2. As quoted in Pauly, P.J., Cordrollirig Life: Jacques Loeb and the Engineering Ideal in Biology, Oxford University Press, New York, NY, 1987, p. 71.
3. Ibid., 214N, where Pauly is referring to the following passage: “One of the most important instincts is usually not even recognised as such namely, the instinct of workmanship… I take this name from Veblen's book The Theory of the Leisure Class” Cf. Loeb, J., Comparative Physiology of the Brain and Comparative Psychology, Arno Press, New York, NY, 1973, p. 197, 233. Also, cf. Loeb J., The Mechanistic Conception of Life, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL, 1912, pp. 30-1; and Duffus, “Jacques Loeb: Mechanist”, Century Magazine, Vol. 108, 1924, p. 380.
4. Duffus, “Jacques Loeb: Mechanist”, Century Magazine, Vol. 108, 1924, p. 7.
5. Commager, H.S., The American Mind, Yale University Press, New Haven, CT, 1950, p. 239.
6. Cf. Riesman, D., Thorste in Veblen: A Critical Interpretation, Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, NY, 1960. For the influence of: William James see pp. 19, 25, 40, 58, 79n., 120; William McDougall, p. 54; Jacques Loeb, pp. 19, 54, 205. Diggins, J.P., The Bard of Savagery: Thorskin Veblen and Modern Social Theory, The Seabury Press, New York, NY, 1978, emphasizes the influence of William James and Jacques Loeb; see pp. 4, 37, 182, 222, 229; Gruchy, A.G., Modern Economic Thought: The Ayyierican Contribution, Prentice-Hall, New York, NY, 1947, focuses on William James on pp. 62–3, 254–5. Mitchell, W.C. (Ed.), What Veblen Taught, Augustus M. Kelley, New York, NY, 1964, pp. 30-4, stresses the influence of James, Darwin and Loeb; Dorfman, J., Thorstein Veblen and His America, Viking Press, New York, NY, 1934, emphasizes the influence of James on p. 450 and Loeb on pp. 115, 196, 277. Although he does not claim Morgan had a direct influence on Veblen, he mentions Morgan's contribution to the existing intellectual milieu on pp. 115, 139. Rosenberg, B. (Ed.), Thorstein Veblen, Thomas Y. Crowell, New York, NY, 1963, emphasizes Loeb, Darwin and James on p. 2. Commons, J.R. (Institutional Economics, Vol. II, University of Wisconsin Press, Madison, WI, 1961, p. 661 stresses the influence of Darwin; Ayres, C.E., “Veblen's Theory of Instincts” in Dowd, D. (Ed.), Thorstein Veblen: A Critical Reappraisal, Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY, 1958, emphasizes the intellectual milieu influenced by James and McDougall on p. 28. Dobriansky, L., Veblenism: A New Critique, intro. by James Burnham, Public Affairs Press, Washington, 1957, stresses the influence of Loeb, McDougall and James on pp. 17, 121, 170, 250, 253, 257.
7. Cf. Veblen, The Instinct of Workmanship, B.W. Huebsch, New York, NY, 1918, Chap. 1.
8. Cf. Tool, M., Essays in Social Value Theory, M.E. Sharpe, Armonk, NY, 1986, pp. 56–61.
9. Veblen, The Instinct of Workmanship, B.W. Huebsch, New York, NY, 1918, Chap. 1.
10. Pauly, D.J., Controlling Life: Jacques Loeb and the Engineering Ideal in Biology, Oxford University Press, New York, 1987.
11. Loeb, J., The Mechanistic Conception of Life, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL, 1912, p. 3.
12. As quoted in Weissmann, G., The Woods Hole Cantata: Essays on Science and Society, Raven, New York, NY, 1985, foreword by Lewis Thomas, p. 6.
13. Loeb, J., The Mechanistic Conception of Life, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL, 1912, p. 31.
14. Duffus, R., “Jacques Loeb: Mechanist”, Century Magazine, Vol. 108, 1924, p. 380.
15. Loeb, J., “Biology and War”, Science, 26 January 1917, pp. 74–5.
16. Cf. Dorfman, J., Thorstein Veblen and His America, Augustus M. Kelley, New York, NY, 1966, on Veblen's relationship with his wife. On his “womanizing” while he was at Stanford, cf. Duffus, R., The Innocents at Cedro, Macmillan, New York, NY, 1944, pp. 8, 18, 92, 98.
17. Veblen to Loeb, 10 February 1905, Jacques Loeb Collection, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, DC.
18. Veblen to Loeb, 24 July 1906.
19. Veblen to David Starr Jordan, 19 November 1909, Stanford University Archives, Cecil Green Library, Stanford, CA.
20. Veblen to Loeb, 29 October 1909, Loeb Papers.
21. David S. Jordan to Henry P. Judson, 6 October 1909, University Presidents Papers, 1889–1925, Regenstein Library, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL.
22. Cf. David S. Jordan to Thorstein Veblen, 22 August 1917, Thorstein Veblen Collection, Wisconsin State Historical Society, Madison, Wisconsin.
23. Veblen to Loeb, 24 March 1905.
24. Veblen to Loeb, 20 February 1913.
25. Loeb to Veblen, 3 January 1919.
26. Ibid. Pauly comments that “Loeb considered his mechanistic” position scientific commonsense. It meant commitment to materialism and determinism, the belief that life could ultimately be explained in terms of physical science, an interest in physico-chemical methods, and the realization that ethical principles were ultimately grounded in biology”. (Pauly, Controlling Life: Jacques Loeb and the Engineering Ideal in Biology, Oxford University Press, New York, p. 141). Loeb invidiously contrasted the empirically-based knowledge gained through physical chemistry with “metaphysics” and “vitalistic mysticism”. Cf. Pauly (Controlling Life, op. cit., pp. 139-40). Bergson's Creative Evolution had recently been translated from French and was the centre of much controversy. Loeb thought Bergson's élan vital to be ridiculous and Veblen's opinion of it was also negative.
27. Veblen, The Instinct of Workmanship, B.W. Huebsch, New York, NY, pp. 334.
28. Loeb to Veblen, 16 August 1915.
29. Loeb to Veblen, 25 April 1917.
30. Pauly, Controlling Life: Jacques Loeb and the Engineering Ideal in Biology, Oxford University Press, New York, NY.
31. The Chicago philosopher George H. Mead once wrote to his wife that he “had a pleasant call upon Veblen, who is pained because the Socialist Review says his doctrine is good socialism”. It is unlikely that Veblen would have made such a comment on grounds of ideological conviction given his sympathies for socialism; rather, it is probably evidence of the tenuous nature of academic freedom and tenure at the University of Chicago in its early years. (G.H Mead to Helen Mead, 13 May 1901, Mead Collection, Regenstein Library, University of Chicago). It is also worth mentioning that Veblen's colleague Edward Bemis had been unable to secure reappointment as associate professor of political economy ostensibly because his attitudes on public utility regulation were offensive to the local utility magnate. See Dorfman, Thorstein Veblen attd His America, Viking Press, New York, NY, pp. 122–3.