ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses some of Veblen’s central ideas on human agency and institutional evolution, on the basis of the philosophical and psychological foundations outlined in the previous chapter. It is shown that Veblen steered a course away from both methodological individualism and methodological collectivism, while emphasizing the weight of the past on human cognition and action. Institutions, for Veblen, were partly repositories of knowledge. Through identifiable psychological mechanisms, institutions can also affect individual dispositions, but without eliminating the reality and relative autonomy of human agency. Finally, it is shown how Veblen placed these ideas within a Darwinian framework of institutional evolution, alongside biological evolution at other levels.
