Subreption, radical institutionalism, and economic evolution

John Hall,Joe Mitchell-Nelson,Alexander Dunlap

doi:10.2298/pan1604475h

John Hall, Joe Mitchell-Nelson + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.2298/pan1604475h

Copy DOI

Abstract

This inquiry seeks to establish the importance of subreption as an approach to economic and social evolution that also proves integral to the tradition of radical institutionalism. We relate subreption?s etymology and appearances in Roman, Canon and Scots Law, as well as in Philosophy, to its applications found in writings advanced by Thorstein Veblen and carried on later as William Dugger details the rise of corporate hegemony. Understood as an approach derivable from selected philosophical writings of Immanuel Kant, in social science subreption is suggested to occur through the introduction of an outside value that sets off a form of institutional evolution that we characterize as an ?volution noire. Considering subreption and the rise of big business, we can mark a movement away from a past governed by comparatively noble values and towards a deteriorated, debased and degraded economic and social reality overtly influenced by comparatively ignoble, pecuniary values.

Highlights

In his article “An Institutional Framework of Analysis”, William Dugger (1980, p. 901) emphasizes that “[s]ubreption is one of the least studied social phenomena of the twentieth century”, and that subreption can destroy “... the foundation of a pluralistic society”
We assess the research of William Dugger as important as it helped to foster a revival in the school of Original Institutional Economics (OIE) and through effectively connecting Thorstein Veblen with his roots
Our sense is that for the 20th and 21st centuries we can single out pecuniary values associated with big business, conglomerates, and multinational corporations oriented towards production and finance - as the instigators and drivers of sustained subreption in the current era

Summary

Etymology and Uses in Law and Kantian Philosophy

Research of Zachary Sng (2010, pp. 78-79) indicates that subreption’s early appearance and uses can be found in Roman Law “... as a judicial term describing the introduction of false evidence into a legal proceeding”. To further elaborate upon and further refine our basic understanding, we could clarify that Kant’s notion of subreption can be understood as the fallacy arising through our applying the laws of sensuous knowledge - that includes his notions of time and space - to concepts that properly belong to the intellect and which stand outside of time and space These would include intellectual concepts of God, Platonic forms, mathematics, and the like. This means that it is possible to apply an intellectual concept - existence, in this case - to a sensuous notion In this manner what Kant identifies as the fallacy of subreption succeeds in leading our thinking and reasoning astray, as the fallacy resembles a different and true axiom of reasoning. The close resemblance between these true and false axioms appears to explain why Kant and his interpreters choose the particular words: vitium subreptionis metaphysicum, Erschleichung, and subreption, to describe the fallacy he identifies, holding that a falsehood can creep and crawl into our logical thinking - largely undetected - thereby leading us to invalid reasoning, and because of the closeness and similarity to valid reasoning

From Kant’s Philosophy to Veblen’s Social Science Inquiry

From Veblen to Dugger’s Use of Subreption

Summary and Conclusion