ABSTRACT
Thorstein Veblen (1857-1929) was an extraordinary and outstanding American economist; unfortunately his works do not receive sufficient attention in economics today. Many evolutionary economists associate the birth of their discipline with Veblen’s institutional economic theory, insofar as they often refer to his most prominent article ‘Why is economics not an evolutionary science?’ (1898). Veblen’s article represents a warning to the community of economists at the end of the nineteenth century. He claimed the significant role of anthropological and evolutionary thought for the economic science.
