Clarence Edwin Ayres (May 6, 1891 – July 24, 1972) was the principal thinker in the Texas school of

institutional economics Institutional economics focuses on understanding the role of the Sociocultural evolution, evolutionary process and the role of institutions in shaping Economy, economic Human behavior, behavior. Its original focus lay in Thorstein Veblen's instin ...

during the middle of the 20th century.

Life

Ayres was born in

Lowell, Massachusetts Lowell () is a city in Massachusetts, United States. Alongside Cambridge, Massachusetts, Cambridge, it is one of two traditional county seat, seats of Middlesex County, Massachusetts, Middlesex County. With an estimated population of 115,554 in ...

, the son of a

Baptist Baptists are a Christian denomination, denomination within Protestant Christianity distinguished by baptizing only professing Christian believers (believer's baptism) and doing so by complete Immersion baptism, immersion. Baptist churches ge ...

minister. He graduated from

Brown University Brown University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. It is the List of colonial colleges, seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the US, founded in 1764 as the ' ...

in 1912, and received a Ph.D. in philosophy from the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...

in 1917. He taught at Chicago from 1917 until 1920, and then moved on to

Amherst College Amherst College ( ) is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1821 as an attempt to relocate Williams College by its then-president Zepha ...

, in Massachusetts, where he taught until 1923. Following a year at

Reed College Reed College is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Portland, Oregon, United States. Founded in 1908, Reed is a residential college with a campus in the Eastmoreland, Portland, Oregon, E ...

Portland, Oregon Portland ( ) is the List of cities in Oregon, most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon, located in the Pacific Northwest region. Situated close to northwest Oregon at the confluence of the Willamette River, Willamette and Columbia River, ...

, Ayres became associate editor of the New Republic, where he worked until 1927. In that year, Ayres joined the faculty at the

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public university, public research university in Austin, Texas, United States. Founded in 1883, it is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. With 53,082 stud ...

, where he remained until his retirement in 1968. One of Ayres students during Ayres time at Amherst College was

Talcott Parsons Talcott Parsons (December 13, 1902 – May 8, 1979) was an American sociologist of the classical tradition, best known for his social action theory and structural functionalism. Parsons is considered one of the most influential figures in soci ...

, the most famous of all American sociologists, who wrote two term-papers for Ayres's Philosophy III class. Another notable student of Ayres was

C. Wright Mills Charles Wright Mills (August 28, 1916 – March 20, 1962) was an American Sociology, sociologist, and a professor of sociology at Columbia University from 1946 until his death in 1962. Mills published widely in both popular and intellectual jour ...

. Ayres died on July 24, 1972, in

Alamogordo, New Mexico Alamogordo () is a city in and the county seat of Otero County, New Mexico, United States. A city in the Tularosa Basin of the Chihuahuan Desert, it is bordered on the east by the Sacramento Mountains and to the west by Holloman Air Force ...

Ideas

Ayres is best known for developing an economic philosophy stemming from the works of

Thorstein Veblen Thorstein Bunde Veblen (; July 30, 1857 – August 3, 1929) was an American Economics, economist and Sociology, sociologist who, during his lifetime, emerged as a well-known Criticism of capitalism, critic of capitalism. In his best-known book ...

and

John Dewey John Dewey (; October 20, 1859 – June 1, 1952) was an American philosopher, psychologist, and Education reform, educational reformer. He was one of the most prominent American scholars in the first half of the twentieth century. The overridi ...

. From Veblen, he took over the notion of the struggle with the so-called capitalist society as a (Darwinist) struggle between technology and ceremonial structure. Veblen had proposed an analytical dichotomy between the "instrumental" and the "ceremonial" aspects of culture. Ayres substituted the term "institutional" for the term "ceremonial" (although he continued to use the term "ceremonial" for some purposes). From Dewey he took over the concept of "

instrumentalism In philosophy of science and in epistemology, instrumentalism is a methodological view that ideas are useful instruments, and that the worth of an idea is based on how effective it is in explaining and predicting natural phenomena. According to in ...

," and particularly adopted as his own Dewey's theory of values, which he used to attack the notion of philosophical dualism . Ayres's attack on dualism and "higher values" was the key reason why his student

rejected his ideas.

Works

* 1917.
The Nature of the Relationship between Ethics and Economics
'' Dissertation, University of Chicago. * 1927.
Science: The False Messiah
'' Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill. * 1929. ''Holier Than Thou: The Way of the Righteous.'' Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill * 1932. ''Huxley.'' New York: W. W. Norton. * 1938.
The Problem of Economic Order
'' New York: Farrar and Rinehart. * 1944. ''The Theory of Economic Progress.'' Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. * 1946. ''The Divine Right of Capital.'' Boston: Houghton Mifflin. * 1952. ''The Industrial Economy: Its Technological Basis and Institutional Destiny.'' Boston: Houghton Mifflin. * 1961. ''Toward a Reasonable Society: The Values of Industrial Civilization.'' Austin: University of Texas Press. * 1962. ''The Theory of Economic Progress, 2nd ed.'' New York: Schocken Books.

References

Citations

Bibliography

External links

University of Texas memorial biography
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ayers, Clarence Edwin 1891 births 1972 deaths Economists from New Mexico Amherst College faculty Brown University alumni Institutional economists Writers from Lowell, Massachusetts University of Chicago alumni Reed College faculty University of Texas at Austin faculty Economists from Massachusetts 20th-century American economists