Transcript Herbert Spencer (1820-1903)

Herbert Spencer (1820-1903)
Evolutionism & Functionalism
1820 - 1903
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Personal
Born in small brick house
near Derby England
Mother-Harriet, quiet,
Methodist
Father- William, teacher
Education
 Taught
at home by:
Father
Later, his uncle
 Main
focus=science
Occupation
 1837
(age17) an engineer at
London and Birmingham Railroad
 Later: draftsman
for Birmingham
Railway
◦ Discharged in 1841
◦ Returned home to Derby
Herbert Spencer
1853: Inheritance from
uncle
Life: Private
scholar
Bachelor
Frugal
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Social Environment: Ideas
 Emerging
upper class
 Industrial
working class
◦ Drawn to socialism
 Notions
of inequality & social
difference
Social Environment: Ideas
 “Middle-class
rural radicalism”
1. Opposed centralized
authority
2. Supported separation of
church & state
3. Anti-aristocratic
(aristocrats=lazy)
Social Environment: Ideas
◦ “Middle-class
rural radicalism”
4. Against socialism
5. Anti-military
6. Secular progress & human
reason
7. Meritocracy
(cont.)
Social Environment: Ideas
 “Antigovernment
Individualism”
◦ Small government is best
◦ Government provides:
1. Military
2. Protection for individual
rights
Social Environment: Ideas
 “Naturalistic
Evolutionism”
1. Applies to all natural
phenomena
2. Sequences of growth &
development
3. Slow, step by step
progress
Social Environment: Ideas
 “Positivistic
Uniformitarianism”
◦ Same evolutionary processes:
◦ Biological
◦ Psychological
◦ Social
◦ Cumulative
effect of small
changes over long time
Social Environment: Ideas
 Utopia
◦ Evil is eliminated
◦ People live in harmony
◦ Society based on
“Spontaneous voluntaristic
cooperation”
◦ Happiness for all
Social Environment: Ideas
 Sociology
replaces religion
◦Evolution=god
◦Government (regulation &
intervention=the devil)
Life
 Published
in radical press
“The Proper Sphere of
Government”
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
Herbert Spencer
 First
book (1850)
 Social Statics
◦ Based on “The Proper Sphere of
Government”
Supported laissez faire
government
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1/24 Herbert Spencer
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.”
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Herbert Spencer
 Disagreed
with Comte on
government intervention
◦ Natural order of societies is
hierarchy
 Comte: “Social
Priests”
(governmental powers)
◦ Help society run smoothly
Spencer’s 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)
MW/Spencer’s View of the
Individual
 Lamarkianism
◦ Acquired traits-> Inherited
 Emotion/Sentiments
◦ Dominate intellect
 Survival
of the fittest
◦ Traits change through use &
disuse
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
(continued)
◦ Specialization
◦ Different functions
◦ Integration
◦ Parts work together
◦ Adaptation
◦ Change improves function
Herbert Spencer
Class of Theories: Organicism
 Societal Evolution--Social Darwinism


Society is similar to a special organism
obeying its own laws of ‘progress.’
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Social Darwinism
1. Not Darwinism
◦ Darwinism is Not teleological
2. Survival of the fittest =
Spencerism
 Is teleolocigal-> Perfect
society
Herbert Spencer
 Around
1854, suffered nervous
illness
◦ Unable to concentrate, write, or read
 Acute
insomnia
◦ Heavy doses of opium
 Retreated
from society
◦ Became semi-hermit
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Spencer’s Importance to
Sociology
1.
A positivist
2. Sociology verify causation
3. Sociologists should be
cultural relativists