Download Herbert Spencer (1820


(1820-1903)
"Every man is free to do that
which he wills, provided he
infringes not the equal
freedom of any other man."
Background and Family
•
Born in Derby, England
• April 27, 1820
•
Eldest of 9 children
• Only one to survive infancy
• Weak & sickly child
•
No formal education
•
Father (George) was teacher
• Taught him Sciences and Math
Family Influences

Father was unkind to his mother

Herbert thought of his mother as
“simple-minded”

Uncle Thomas taught principles of
utilitarian political philosophical
◦ 18th & 19th-century--Jeremy Bentham and
19th-century English philosopher John
Stuart Mill
Family Influences
 Early
age, Herbert strongly
influenced by his father:
◦ Individualism
◦ Anti-establishment
◦ Anti-clerical
◦ Early years showed resistance to
authority and independence
Career
 Civil
engineer for railway
 Found
fossils doing railway work
◦ Sparked interest in evolution
 Eventually
quit job to pursue
other interests
Career
 Began
to publish articles in radical
press:
◦ Argued for extreme restrictions
on government
◦ Against welfare
◦ Against national education
◦ Against established church
Career
 Became
subeditor: London
Economist
◦ Laissez-faire beliefs
 1851-
finished 1st book Social
Statics
◦ Power should be given to whole
society
◦ Lays basis for a limited state
Career
 During
writing he experienced
insomnia
 Could
only work few hours a day
 Used
substantial amounts of
opium
 Suffered
nervous breakdowns
Career
 Experienced
strange sensations in
his head
◦ He called "the mischief“

Known for eccentricities like wearing
ear-plugs to avoid over-excitement
◦ Especially when he could not win an
argument
Career
 Uncle
died and left Spencer
money
 1855-
2nd book The Principles of
Psychology
 Soon
after, he suffered from a
nervous illness
More Publications
◦ The Social Organism (1860)
◦ First Principles (1862)
◦ Principles of Biology (1864-67)
◦ The study of sociology (1873)
◦ The principles of Ethics- many volumes
(1870s)
◦ The Principles of Sociology- many volumes
(1890s)
◦ The Man Versus the State (1884)
◦ Autobiography (1904)
Social Environment—Ideas
 Emerging
upper class
 Industrial
working class
◦ Drawn to socialism
 Notions
of inequality & social
difference
“Middle-class Rural
Radicalism”
1. Opposed centralized
authority
2. Supported separation of
church & state
3. Anti-aristocratic
◦ Aristocrats are lazy
“Middle-class Rural Radicalism”
4. Against socialism
5. Anti-military
6. For secular progress &
human reason
7. Meritocracy
“Antigovernment
Individualism”
◦Small government is best
◦ Government provides:
1. Military
2. Protection for individual
rights
Evolution
Spencer’s foremost concern was
with evolutionary changes in
social structures.
Evolution of societies is special case
of a universally applicable natural
law
“Naturalistic Evolutionism”
1. Applies to all natural
phenomena
2. Sequences of growth &
development
3. Slow, step by step
progress
Evolution
 Universal
process
 Explains
earliest changes which
universe is supposed to have
undergone
 And
latest changes in society and
the products of social life
Evolution
"There can be no complete
acceptance of sociology as a
science, so long as the belief in a
social order not conforming to
natural law survives" (1891, p.
394).
Evolution

Cultural evolution
◦ Humans adapt to environmental changes
through culture rather than biological
adaptation
◦ Can not be stopped
◦ Minimal government intervention
◦ Benefits of individualism and Industrial
Revolution
Growth, Structure,
and Differentiation

Societal Complexity
◦ Increase in social groups
◦ Increase in complexity of social structure

Differentiation of Functions
◦ Creation of specialized social roles and
institutions
◦ Interdependence of the parts of society
Functionalism
 Society
development
 Social
institutions arise from
structural requirements
 Division
of labor
Ethnocentrism
“Instead of passing over as of
no account or else regarding
as purely mischievous, the
superstitions of primitive man,
we must inquire what part
they play in social evolution"
(1891, p. 339).
Survival of The Fittest
 Spencer--Coined
 Eliminates
the term
unfavorable variations
of species
 Focused
on both biological and
social processes
 Appeared
to be cold-hearted
toward poor, widowed, and
orphaned
Two Classifications of Society
1.
2.
Militant
Industrial
Spencer—Difference is in social
regulation
Militant & Industrial Societies
 Rather
than based on physical
and biological environment
 Classification
hypothesis:
◦ Social structure is affected by
relations a society has to other
societies
Militant & Industrial Societies
 Peaceful
relations with
neighbors Relatively weak and
diffuse systems of government
 Hostile
relations Coercive and
centralized authoritarian regimes
Militant & Industrial Societies
 Characteristic
trait of militant
societies is compulsion (coercion)
Industrial type of society is based
on voluntary cooperation
Militant & Industrial Societies
Militant--Industrial
classification scheme gave
him a pessimistic view of
the future of mankind.
Militant & Industrial Societies
“If we contrast the period from 1815 to
1850 with the period from 1850 to the
present time, we cannot fail to see
that all along with increased
armaments, more frequent conflicts,
and revived military sentiment, there
has been a spread of compulsory
regulations. . . .The freedom of
individuals has been in many ways
actually diminished . . . . And
undeniably this is a return towards the
coercive discipline which pervades the
whole social life where the militant
type is pre-eminent.?
Thomas
Malthus

Intellectual Influences
An Essay on the Principles of Population
◦ Spencer’s outlook on the
problem of overpopulation was
not quite as pessimistic as
Malthus’
◦ Spencer believed that
overpopulation would lead to
the “survival of the fittest”
Survival of the Fittest

Two basic outcomes
1. Excess fertility could stimulate
greater activity
2. Conflict due to scarcity of
goods accelerate into political
and territorial conflicts
Biology


Intellectual Influences
Spencer acknowledged role of environmental
variables on social organization
Agreed that the Super Organic (society) and the
Organism (body) had six similarities:
1. Society and individuals grow
2. As size increases so does complexity
3. Progression in structure is accompanied by a differentiation
in function
4. Parts of the whole are interdependent of one another
5. Every organism is a society
6. Some parts die, and some parts go on.
Charles Darwin Intellectual Influences

Origin of Species in 1859 was welcomed
by Spencer.

Gave Spencer a respected intellectual
tool for justifying his laissez-faire
beliefs.

Darwin’s theory of evolution and
Spencer’s survival of the fittest
concepts mistakenly interchangeable.
Auguste
Comte


Intellectual Influences
Spencer not overly impressed with Comte.
Areas of agreement
1. Knowledge comes from positive methods
2. Invariable laws can be discovered and utilized
3. Different branches of knowledge form a
rational whole.
4. Social phenomena form an interdependent
whole
5. Both developed theories of evolution and
progress
6. Spencer accepted Comte’s term of sociology
for the science of superorganic bodies.
Auguste Comte

Intellectual Influences
Spencer disagreed with Comte:
1. Societies passed through three distinct stages.
2. Government can use the laws of sociology to
reconstruct society
3. Sciences have developed in a particular order.
4. Especially disagreed with Comte’s sense of a
positivist religion and sociologist-priests.
5. Comte believed that individuals could be taught
morality, largely through the positivist religion,
but Spencer ridiculed the idea that morality
could be taught by any means, let alone religion
or the government.
Spencer’s Other Intellectual
Roots
 Thomas
Paine
◦ Individual rights
◦ Human perfectibility
 Adam Smith
◦ No government interference
◦ Invisible hand of the market
 Marian Evans (aka George Eliot)
◦ Feminism (for awhile)
“Social Darwinism”
1. Not Darwinism
◦ Darwinism is Not teleological
2. Survival of the fittest =
Spencerism
 Is
teleolocigal-> Perfect
society
Spencer’s Utopia
◦ Evil is eliminated
◦ People live in harmony
◦ Society based on
“Spontaneous voluntaristic
cooperation”
◦ Happiness for all
Sociology Replaces Religion
◦Evolution=god
◦Government (regulation &
intervention)= devil
“The Proper Sphere of
Government”
 Published
in radical press
◦ Supported extreme
restriction on scope of
government
The Proper Sphere of Government
 Only
Policing
 Everything else-> Private
enterprise
◦ No poor laws
◦ No national education
◦ No established church
◦ No restrictions on commerce
◦ No factory legislation
Spencer’s View of the Individual
 Lamarkianism
◦ Acquired traits-> Inherited
 Emotions
◦ Dominate intellect
 Survival
of the fittest
◦ Traits change through use &
disuse
Spencer’s View of the Individual
 Spencer
believed that society was
evolving toward increasing
freedom for individuals
 So
that government intervention,
ought to be minimal in social and
political life
Spencer’s View of the Individual
Basic argument of Social Statics:
“Human happiness can be
achieved only when individuals
can satisfy their needs and
desires without infringing on
the rights of others to do the
same.”
45
Spencer’s View of the Individual
 Gender
◦ Earlier believed gender was
learned
◦ Later reversed position
◦ Women’s intellectual abilities
sacrificed for reproduction
◦ Women destined by nature for
domestic role
Methodology
 All
natural phenomena explained
by evolution
 “Social occurrences” are natural
phenomena
 Evolution—Progressive
change in:
◦ Mass (population)
◦ Density (crowding)
◦ Differentiation (dividing into parts)
Methodology
 Evolution
◦ Specialization
◦ Different functions
◦ Integration
◦ Parts work together
◦ Adaptation
◦ Change improves function
Theory
 Class
of Theories: Organicism
 Society
is similar to a special
organism obeying its own laws of
‘progress.’
 Societal
Evolution
49
Contribution to Theory
 Spencer
was one of the most
argumentative
 And
most discussed English
thinkers of the Victorian period.
Final Ideas…

Spencer claimed that knowledge
was of two kinds:
(1) Knowledge gained by individual
(2) Knowledge gained by the race.
Intuition, or knowledge learned
unconsciously=the inherited
knowledge of the race.

Basic and final reality beyond our
knowledge, which he called the
Unknowable.
Spencer’s Importance to
Sociology
1.
A positivist
2. Sociology verify causation
3. Sociologists should be
cultural relativists
Herbert Spencer
 He
died in 1903
 buried at Highgate
Cemetery near
 George
Eliot and Karl Marx.