Liberalism and Social Evolutionism

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Liberalism and Social Evolutionism

• Adam Ferguson (1723-1816)
• Division of labor
• System of exchange
• No interference of the government
• Adam Smith (1732-1790)
• The Wealth of Nations (1776)
• Laws of supply and demand
• invisible hand

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Liberalism and Social Evolutionism

• I. Liberalism and Social Reform
• (1) Liberal market approach (Laissez-faire
  approach)
• Division of labor and the exchanges of market
  follow their own natural laws.
• Thomas Malthus
• An Essay on the Principle of Population (1798)
• Population increases and always outstrip food
  supplies, and the less fit individuals will
  starve.
• Poverty is the result of a law of nature.
• The natural laws of the system are all to be good
  in the end and it is fruitless to interfere with
  them.

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Liberalism and Social Evolutionism

• I. Liberalism and Social Reform
• (2) Utilitarian approach (Welfare state approach)
• Rational individuals calculate profits and losses
  and act accordingly. This self-interest is all
  to the good of the system.
• Jeremy Bentham
• Utilitarianism An action conforms to the
  principle of utility if and only if its
  performance will be more productive of pleasure
  or happiness.
• The greatest happiness (good) for the greatest
  numbers.

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Liberalism and Social Evolutionism

• I. Liberalism and Social Reform
• (2) Utilitarian approach (Welfare state approach)
• John Stuart Mill (1806-1873)
• Principles of Political Economy (1848)
• Market is only one system among many. Its
  not Gods single law, and if its operations and
  results do not bring happiness, were free to
  modify it or to try another system.
• This created the philosophy of reform and modern
  welfare state.

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Liberalism and Social Evolutionism

• II. Social Evolutionism Darwin and Spencer
• Charles Darwin
• On the Origin of Species (1859)
• All the species of animals and plants are
  evolving from common ancestors through the
  principle of natural selection.
• The most fit ones survive and reproduce in the
  available environments, and the less fit die out.

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Liberalism and Social Evolutionism

• II. Social Evolutionism Darwin and Spencer
• Herbert Spencer (1820-1903)
• He supports the economic principles of
  laissez-faire and an evolutionist view of
  stratification as produced by natural laws.
• Principles of evolutionary selection
• Actions of individuals
• Invisible hand of the market

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Liberalism and Social Evolutionism

• II. Social Evolutionism Darwin and Spencer
• Herbert Spencer (1820-1903)
• Evolution is the process of adaptation to the
  environment, and its long-terms trend, it also
  means a change from the lower, earlier, and
  simple adaptations to higher, later, and complex
  adaptations.
• Size brings about a differentiation of structure.
  
• In a relative simple system, we can observe
  regulative system, sustaining system, and
  exchange and distribution system.
• As society grows, each of these sectors
  subdivides.

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Liberalism and Social Evolutionism

• II. Social Evolutionism Darwin and Spencer
• Herbert Spencer (1820-1903)
• Typology of Society
• Militant society where the regulative system
  dominates the sustaining system. Cooperation is
  compulsory and enforced by the state. The
  society is autocratic, religious, and warlike.
• Industrial society where cooperation is voluntary
  and mostly through the means of market. The
  state exists for the benefit of its members and
  not vice versa.

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Liberalism and Social Evolutionism

• III. Liberalism in America
• (1) The Evolutionist Approach
• William Graham Sumner (1840-1910)
• Laissez-faire economics and Social Darwinism
• He opposed all government efforts to regulate
  business or to combat social inequality.
• Inequality was the mainspring of material
  progress in a society of open competition.
• He criticized welfare programs for foolishly
  disrupting this rightful stratification.

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Liberalism and Social Evolutionism

• III. Liberalism in America
• (1) The Evolutionist Approach
• William Graham Sumner (1840-1910)
• Folkways (1906)
• What do you mean by folkways and Mores?
• Folkways denote those group habits that are
  common to a society or culture and are usually
  called customs.
• Mores is a concept developed to designate those
  folkways that if violated, result in extreme
  punishment.
• The mores can make anything right.

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Liberalism and Social Evolutionism

• III. Liberalism in America
• (2) Social Reform Approach
• Associations of all kinds
• Reform of the American universities
• How to justify intervention in social problems.

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Liberalism and Social Evolutionism

• III. Liberalism in America
• (2) Social Reform Approach
• They accept the basic idea of gradual progress
  through evolution.
• The evolution acts through human consciousness
  and choice.
• The state is the conscious agent as it plans its
  own advances.
• Sociology should discover the laws determining
  human behavior, so that society can intervene
  effectively for human betterment.

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Liberalism and Social Evolutionism

• III. Liberalism in America
• (2) Social Reform Approach
• Then, what are these laws?
• Sociology should explain how individual acts, and
  describe the basic elements of human behaviors.
• What are the social problems?
• the growing industrial cities, rapid
  urbanization, and the increasing immigrant
  population
• What are the answers for these social problems?
• Social work, education, and legislation

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Liberalism and Social Evolutionism

• IV. The Limits of Science
• Scientific efforts to solve social problems
• If humans were a kind of animal, they could be
  measured, trained, or selected in more scientific
  ways
• Example 1) Scientific criminology
• the cranial capacities of criminals
• the family heredity of persons of genius (and
  conversely) of the mentally ills and other
  defectives
• Superiority and inferiority of members of society
  are determined by the sizes of heads, health,
  height, weight, vigor, and intellect.

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Liberalism and Social Evolutionism

• IV. The Limits of Science
• Example 2) Military theories of social evolution
• There are the beneficial effects of war in
  improving society since the weaker races were to
  be conquered by the strong
• Example 3) American immigration policy after the
  WWI

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Liberalism and Social Evolutionism

• IV. The Limits of Science
• LIMITS
• Some individuals and countries are in fact
  superior to others, but society cannot be
  explained purely by individual traits.
• Social institutions work according to principles
  of their own, independent of the individuals
  involved.
• Few discernible differences in intelligence and
  other abilities among different races

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Liberalism and Social Evolutionism

• V. The Sociobiology Revival and Darwins
  Consequences
• what is sociobiology?
• the systematic study of the biological basis of
  all social behaviors (Edward O Wilson)
• Nature is more important than nurture in
  determining human society.
• Darwins vision of humankind sets the starting
  point for a sociology that could finally become a
  science.
• We should see human society and its structures as
  important scientific research areas as other
  non-human elements in the natural world.