Herbert Spencer

1
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

• Born in Derby, England on April 27, 1820
• Weak sickly child
• Father (George) was a teacher
• Had no formal education
• George taught him Sciences and Math, but
  education was weak in other areas
• George taught Spencer from an extremist
  nonconformist perspective

3
Background

• Father was unkind to his mother
• Herbert thought of his mother as simple-minded
• Uncle Thomas taught principles of philosophical
  radicalism
• Entire family very nonconformist and
  individualistic

4
Background

• Worked as civil engineer for railway
• Found fossils while doing railway work
• Sparked interest in evolution
• Eventually quit job to pursue other interests
• Began to publish articles in the radical press
• Argued for extreme restrictions on government
• Against welfare
• Against national education
• Against established church

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Background

• Became subeditor with London Economist
• Laissez-faire beliefs
• 1851- finished 1st book Social Statics
• Power should be given to whole society
• Lays the basis for a limited state
• During writing he began to experience insomnia,
  began smoking opium to cope
• Could only work a few hours a day
• Suffered from nervous breakdowns

6
Background

• Uncle died and left Spencer money
• 1855- 2nd book The Principles of Psychology
• Grounded psychology in evolutionary biology
• Different parts of the cerebrum subserve
  different kinds of mental action
• Very complex
• Soon after second book, he suffered from a
  nervous illness

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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
Social Evolution

• Cultural evolution
• Humans adapt to environmental changes through our
  culture rather than biological adaptation
• Could not be stopped
• Importance of minimal government intervention
• Industrial Revolution

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Concepts
Growth, Structure, and Differentiation

• Increase in social aggregates accompanied by an
  increase in the complexity of structure
• Creation of specialized social roles and
  institutions
• Interdependence
• Adaptive upgrading conditioned by
• 1. External factors
• 2. Internal factors
• 3. Derived factors

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Concepts
Functionalism

• Society development
• Social institutions arise from structural
  requirements
• Division of labor

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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
• Cold-hearted toward poor, widowed, and orphaned

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Concepts
War and Militarism

• Two classifications of society
• 1. Militant industrial
• 2. Level of integration
• Society was similar to an organism
• General law of organization
• Common to both biological and social organism
• Structure of a military
• Purpose of a military
• Not to conquer other nations

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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
George Lewes Karl Von Baer

• Reading Lewes work provided Spencer with the
  general background of philosophical thought
• Von Baers principles allowed Spencer to organize
  his ideas on biological, psychological, and
  social evolution

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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
Biology

• Spencer did however, feel that there were some
  distinct differences between an organism and
  society
• The degree of connectedness
• Communication
• Differences in Consciousness

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Intellectual Influences
Thomas Huxley

• A lifelong friend of Spencers.
• Introduced Spencer to many scientific facts.
• Was also known as Darwins bulldog, his most
  vocal supporter and defender.

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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.

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Intellectual Influences
Auguste Comte

• Spencer was not overly impressed with Comte.
• Areas of agreement between Comte and Spencer
• Knowledge comes from positive methods
• There are invariable laws in the universe that
  can be discovered and utilized
• The different branches of knowledge form a
  rational whole.
• Social phenomena form an interdependent whole
• Both developed theories of evolution and progress
• Spencer accepted Comtes term of sociology for
  the science of superorganic bodies.
• Spencer reluctantly gave credit to Comte for
  reintroducing the organismic analogy back into
  thought.

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Intellectual Influences
Auguste Comte

• Spencer disagreed with Comte on the following
  issues
• Societies passed through three distinct stages.
• Causality is less important than the building of
  social theory.
• Government can use the laws of sociology to
  reconstruct society
• Sciences have developed in a particular order.
• Psychology is merely a subdiscipline of biology.
• Spencer especially disagreed with Comtes sense
  of a positivist religion and sociologist-priests.
• Concerning the emphasis of evolutionary thought
  where Comte was focused on the evolution of
  ideas, Spencer was interested in structural (and
  functional) evolution.
• 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.
• In short, Spencer is an individualist, whereas
  Comte is a combination of liberal-individualist
  and conservative-collectivist

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Relevancy

• DNA
• Industrialization
• Militant and industrial analysis still valid
  today
• Clinton administration
• Survival of the fittest
• Social encounters
• One should never be satisfied with simply
  surviving

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Philosophy

• Realism vs. Idealism
• Idealism- Held that we cannot know the nature of
  reality in itself
• Realism vs. Nominalism
• Nominalism- Believes that abstract concepts are a
  social construction (i.e. society)

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Philosophy

• Idealism vs. Materialism
• Materialism- In the biology of evolution
• Idealism- In social evolution
• Believes evolution is a social construct