| Chapter 1: | Instincts |
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The instinct of workmanship is closely related to our parental bent and it also works for the common good. The instinct of workmanship can be defined as “a taste for effective work, and a distaste for futile effort” [Veblen, 1899, 15]. People have an instinctive affinity for efficiency and a dislike of waste; that affinity has helped the species to survive. There is an intrinsic joy associated with doing something useful. As most people know, not all work is painful. Most farmers get satisfaction from growing crops. Automobile mechanics feel a little pride when they make a repair. Professors are inwardly pleased when they deliver a good lecture. “Do-it yourself” projects are popular in part because people enjoy building and creating. That is not to say that work is always fun. It certainly is not. But we feel an intrinsic need to do something useful. As much as we like to “goof-off,” most of us feel at least a little guilty about wasting time. We dislike pointless bureaucratic paper-pushing because it doesn’t seem to accomplish anything useful; it is a waste of human effort.
The instinct of workmanship can be thought of as “the means by which the ends of parental bent are realized” [Diggins, 1977, 124]. In other words, the instinct of workmanship complements our parental bent because it supports the goal of producing things needed to care for the young. Veblen saw the two instincts as so closely related that it is “a matter of extreme difficulty to draw a line between them” [1914, 25]. But the instinct of workmanship also comes into play in the pursuit of the goals dictated by our other instincts. In fact, the instinct of workmanship “may in some sense be said to be auxiliary to all the rest” [Ibid. 31]. We get satisfaction from doing something constructive. Our other instincts provide the objectives that define what constructive means.