ABSTRACT
To explain the characteristic animus for which Hume stands, on grounds that might appeal to Hume, one should have to inquire into the peculiar circumstances—ultimately material circumstances—that have gone to shape the habitual view of things within the "British community". Thus Thorstein Veblen formulates the problem of accounting for the preconceptions of another "placid unbeliever". To explain the characteristic animus for which Veblen stands, on grounds that might appeal to Veblen, one need a similar inquiry into the peculiar circumstances that have gone to shape the habitual view of things within the American community of his own day. The essence of Veblen's critical work and the type of his constructive efforts, as we have known them since, are revealed in the article of 1898 and the book of 1899. Veblen molded his own notions of human nature on Darwin, William James, and anthropological records. To the biologist and the open-eyed observer, man is essentially active.
