ABSTRACT
The purpose of this essay is to specify, to explicate, and to evaluate the contribution of Thorstein Bunde Veblen to the instrumental theory of normative value as it has been developed in the philosophical tradition of pragmatism and in the socioeconomic tradition of institutionalism. The thesis of the paper holds that John Dewey’s version of the instrumental theory of normative value was entirely and exclusively procedural and that it was completely devoid of substantive implications. The substance of normative value was contributed to the theory by Veblen in the form of his dichotomy between the benevolent propensities of the human personality that motivate creative behavior and the malevolent propensities of the human personality that motivate destructive behavior. Clarence Ayres achieved a synthesis between the respective value theories of Dewey and Veblen by integrating the Veblenian dichotomy into Dewey’s instrumental theory of value. It was in this manner that Ayres transformed Dewey’s value theory, which had been exclusively procedural, into the contemporary instrumental theory of normative value, which is both procedural and substantive.
