Secrecy

Simmel's work on secrecy is characteristic of his work on social types. Simmel defines secrecy as a condition in which one person is intentionally hiding something while another person is seeking to reveal what is being hidden. Simmel examines various forms of social relationships from the point of view of reciprocal knowledge and secrecy. According to Simmel, confidence is an intermediate state between knowledge and ignorance about a person. Acquaintanceship is a relationship in which there is far more discretion and secretiveness than there is among intimates. Friendship is not based on total intimacy, but rather involves limited intimacy based on common intellectual pursuits, religion, and shared experiences. Marriage is the least secretive form of relationship. Simmel sees the secret as one of man's greatest achievements because it makes for a strong "we-feeling" among those who know the secret. But the secret is always accompanied dialectically by the possibility that it can be discovered. Simmel thought that the social structure of modern society permits and requires a high degree of secrecy. The money economy, for example, allows people to hide transactions, acquisitions, and changes in ownership.

Criticisms

Simmel is most frequently criticized for the fragmentary character of his work. He did not devise a systematic sociology on a par with Marx, Durkheim, or Weber. Marxists criticize Simmel for not seeing a way out of the tragedy of culture—an analytic equivalent to Marx's concept of alienation.

Thorstein Veblen (1857-1929) is known in sociology for his famous work on conspicuous consumption. He also shares with the classical theorists of his day a focal interest in issues relating to production, especially the contradiction between the potential of industrial production to fulfil society's needs and the interests of businessmen to earn a profit.

Intellectual Influences

Veblen's work is influenced by a range of social thinkers, including Karl Marx, evolutionary thinkers like Herbert Spencer, and economists like Adam Smith.

Both Veblen and Marx share a materialist perspective that holds that society is shaped by the means of procuring a livelihood. Yet, while Marx thought that labor was the creative force in society, Veblen sees the industrial arts, especially technology, as creative forces.

Influenced by Darwin and the Social Darwinists, Veblen views society as being dominated by the struggle for existence, with the fittest social institutions and habits of thought surviving. Still, the selective adaptation that lies at the core of evolution is never totally successful, because institutions adapted from the past can never catch up with changing social circumstances. Veblen's two-stage model of social evolution posits the development from primitive societies characterized by peace and cooperation, and predatory barbarism characterized by its warlike and competitive character. A key aspect of this process is the shift from free workmanship in primitive societies to the control of industry by pecuniary interests under barbarism.

Although Veblen was known in his lifetime as an economist, he thought that most economic theory was static, hedonistic, rationalistic, teleological, and deductive. His work sought to focus on larger cultural and institutional issues instead of making theoretical deductions.

Basic Ideas

Veblen has a strong sense of human nature and its importance in social life. He thought that the primary human instinct was an instinct of workmanship involving the efficient use of available means and adequate management of available resources. The parental bent (an unselfish solicitude of the well-being of the incoming generation), idle curiosity, and the desire to emulate persons of distinction and achievement are also important instincts. In addition to human nature, the industrial arts (technological knowledge) are a common stock of knowledge, skill, and technique that play a major role in shaping society.

Veblen operates with a theory of cultural lag in which advances in science and technology outpace changes in the system of law and custom. From his point of view, cultural artifacts like the right of ownership have become a barrier to the progress of the industrial arts. Societies not only develop their own industrial arts, but they also borrow from other cultures. Borrowed ideas have great utility because they come to their new culture without the excess baggage of ritual restricts. Borrowing cultures also have the advantage of being able to create new versions of innovations more quickly than innovating cultures that are liable to get mired in the legacy of their achievements.

The Theory of the Leisure Class

In The Theory of the Leisure Class, Veblen argues that under predatory barbarism, social honour is based on demonstrating tangible evidence of prowess and aggression. Under this system, private property becomes the basis of esteem and everyone in society seeks to emulate those who have a great deal of it. In an earlier era, wealth was seen as evidence of the instinct of workmanship, but more recently wealth itself is understood to be meritorious. Originally, the leisure class sought to demonstrate its wealth by ostentatiously not working – it consumed time non-productively out of a sense that productive work was unworthy. But, as industrial society evolved, conspicuous consumption became the most practical way to demonstrate one's wealth to a transient population. The leisure class is expected to consume the best in food, drink, narcotics, shelter, services, ornaments, apparel, amusements, and so on. Because the leisure class stands at the pinnacle of the stratification system, it is incumbent on all classes that rank below them to emulate the way they live.