Herbert Spencer

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Herbert Spencer

• (1820-1903)

"Every man is free to do that which he wills,
provided he infringes not the equal freedom of
any other man."
http//gerald-massey.org.uk/holyoake/images/herber
t_spencer.jpg
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Background

• More works published
• 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)

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Concepts
Survival of The Fittest

• Coined the term, not Darwin
• Eliminates unfavorable variations of species
• Focused on both biological and social processes
• Society is similar to an organism
• General law of organization common to both
  biological and social organism

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Concepts
Utilitarianism

• Equal liberty principle
• Broadly utilitarianism view
• Goal of human action
• Rejects conventional Benthamite view of public
  interest
• Absolute rights of individuals

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Intellectual Influences
Thomas Malthus

• An Essay on the Principles of Population
• Although his outlook on the problem of
  overpopulation was not quite as pessimistic,
  Spencer believed that overpopulation would lead
  to the survival of the fittest
• Survival of the fittest had two basic outcomes
• The excess of fertility could stimulate greater
  activity
• The conflict for scarcity of goods would
  accelerate into political and territorial
  conflicts

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Intellectual Influences
Biology

• Spencer wrote the first volume of the Principles
  of Biology in 1864 and wrote the second in 1867
• He agreed with post-Newtonian views of science
• Universal laws exist that could explain the
  phenomena in the world
• Proposed three propositions
• The law of persistence force
• The indestructibility of matter
• The continuity of motion

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Intellectual Influences
Biology

• Spencer acknowledged the role of environmental
  variables on social organization and agreed that
  the Super Organic (society) and the Organism
  (body) had six similarities
• Society and individuals grow
• As size increases so does complexity
• Progression in structure is accompanied by a
  differentiation in function
• Parts of the whole are interdependent of one
  another
• Every organism is a society
• Some parts die, and some parts go on.

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Intellectual Influences
Charles Darwin

• Origin of Species in 1859 was welcomed warmly by
  Spencer.
• Darwins theory of evolution offered Spencer a
  respected intellectual tool for justifying his
  laissez-faire beliefs.
• Darwins theory of evolution and Spencers
  survival of the fittest concepts have become
  mistakenly interchangeable.