THE PLACE OF SCIENCE
IN MODERN CIVILISATION

BOOKS BY THORSTEIN VEBLEN

THE PLACE OF SCIENCE
IN
MODERN CIVILISATION
AND OTHER ESSAYS

by

THORSTEIN VEBLEN

New York
B. W. HUEBSCH
Mcmxix

COPYRIGHT, 1919
BY B. W. HUEBSCH

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

PUBLISHER'S NOTE

These essays are here reprinted from various periodicals, running over a period of about twenty years. The selection is due to Messrs. Leon Ardzrooni, Wesley C. Mitchell and Walter W. Stewart.

It is unlikely that more than a few public libraries possess files so complete as to give access to all of these essays, and even if the magazines were readily obtainable at libraries they would almost certainly have to be read in those institutions. The nature of the material, its timeliness (Mr. Veblen deals with ideas in such a manner as to give the date of composition a secondary importance), and the fact that it would otherwise be lost to all save diligent excavators, explain its preservation in this form.

The courtesy of the periodicals in which the papers first appeared, in permitting their reproduction, is gratefully acknowledged.

CONTENTS

THE PLACE OF SCIENCE IN MODERN
CIVILISATION[1]

It is commonly held that modern Christendom is superior to any and all other systems of civilised life. Other ages and other cultural regions are by contrast spoken of as lower, or more archaic, or less mature. The claim is that the modern culture is superior on the whole, not that it is the best or highest in all respects and at every point. It has, in fact, not an all-around superiority, but a superiority within a closely limited range of intellectual activities, while outside this range many other civilisations surpass that of the modern occidental peoples. But the peculiar excellence of the modern culture is