They are Veblen goods, named after Thorstein Veblen, the economist who posited that conspicuous consumption has an inherent purpose as a signal of status.
Because such novels presuppose an intentionality, an inherent purpose, at work in the universe, their ideal audience is made up of contented members of the status quo, connoisseurs of life's small comforts and subtler pleasures.
Instinct as some kind of urge or driving force is exemplified by three very different kinds of motivational theory: Freudian psychoanalysis; inherent purpose, as defined by American psychologist William McDougall; and causal conceptions, as proposed by classical ethology.
In the early 20th century British-born American psychologist William McDougall popularized a theory of instinct based on the idea that behaviour has inherent purpose, in the sense that it is aimed at the attainment of a goal.
Indeed, there are key segments of our culture that unthinkingly operate, regardless of the private beliefs of individuals, on the premise that "God is dead," the cosmos without inherent purpose and life without meaning except whatever can be rather arbitrarily and transiently imposed on it.
For market actors, solving climate- and climate change-related problems is a desirable by-product not an inherent purpose (Twigg 2001).
