Herbert spencer contribution to sociology
Herbert Spencer
English philosopher and political theorist (1820–1903)
For other people named Herbert Spencer, see Herbert Spencer (disambiguation).
Herbert Spencer (27 April 1820 – 8 December 1903) was an English polymath active as a philosopher, psychologist, biologist, sociologist, and anthropologist. Spencer originated the expression "survival of the fittest", which he coined in Principles of Biology (1864) after reading Charles Darwin's 1859 book On the Origin of Species. The term strongly suggests natural selection, yet Spencer saw evolution as extending into realms of sociology and ethics, so he also supported Lamarckism.
Spencer developed an all-embracing conception of evolution as the progressive development of the physical world, biological organisms, the human mind, and human culture and societies. As a polymath, he contributed to a wide range of subjects, including ethics, religion, anthropology, economics, political theory, philosophy, literature, astronomy, biology, sociology, and psychology. During his lifetime he achieved tremendous authority, mainly in English-speaking academia. Spencer was "the single most famous European intellectual in the closing decades of the nineteenth century" but his influence declined sharply after 1900: "Who now reads Spencer?" asked Talcott Parsons in 1937.
Early life and education
Spencer was born in Derby, Derbyshire, England, on 27 April 1820, the son of William George Spencer (generally called George). Spencer's father was a religious dissenter who drifted from Methodism to Quakerism, and who seems to have transmitted to his son an opposition to all forms of authority. He ran a school founded on the progressive teaching methods of Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi and also served as Secretary of the Derby Philosophical Society, a scientific society which had been founded in 1783 by Erasmus Darwin, the grandfather of Charles Darw Basing his ideas on Darwinism, he created a sociological theory that argued that certain human races are more powerful than others and that this can be used to control societies. His ideas led to the most radical and harmful ideologies of the 20th century, including National Socialism. Fig. 1 - Herbert Spencer was a well-known sociologist. Herbert Spencer was born in 1820 in the small English city of Derby. His father, William George Spencer, was a teacher who was famous for founding his own school and using unconventional teaching methods with his students. William Spencer was against all types of religious and political authority. He raised his son in this spirit, which would affect Herbert Spencer’s philosophy later on. When Herbert was 13, his father sent him to his uncle for a formal education. Reverend Thomas Spencer, Herbert’s uncle, was the one to introduce the young boy to Latin, mathematics, physics and radical political thinking. Herbert Spencer adopted his uncle’s radical reformist ideas in his economic and political theories. During Spencer's youth and adulthood, England was reigned by Queen Victoria and went through a very exciting period of transformation and change. England became the first international industrial power, with mass production within the textile, iron, steel and coal industries. Technology and engineering were advancing in Britain with great speed, and art and sciences also went through revolutionary progress. These changes all influenced the philosophy of young Herbert Spencer. Reverend Thomas Spencer offered to finance his n This article presents new insights into Spencer's theoretical sociology as he applied it to the professions and professional institutions, which he discussed extensively, particularly in his Principles of Sociology. The first part of this article notes the main conceptual insights which he established and aligns them within the wider context of a re-reading of Spencer's sociology. Particular attention is paid to the “social organism” and the spontaneous cooperation of social individuals in society (with each possessing “social self-consciousness”). This part also reappraises Spencer's account of the emergence of “professionals” and their distinctive “cunning, skill, and acquaintance with the nature of things,” which professionals have brought to bear on what has been experienced in the ordinary social lives of people as complexity or the unfamiliar in the world. The subsequent discussion focuses on, first, a retrieval of Spencer's theoretical stance on the activities of the professions, and on work and conditions in general, and, second, on reviewing some of the major resonances which his work has with practical problems and the associated theoretical issues concerning the sociological understanding of professional/service-user interaction in social life today. Keywords: Herbert Spencer, professions, service users, complexity and agile agents, social organism and spontaneous cooperation, inheritance of acquired characteristics Recent studies on Spencer have produced significant insights about how to interpret his complex ideas afresh, permitting them to be seen in a more substantial and systematically linked conceptual context. In an earlier article the present writer provided a general survey of what new accounts have achieved in terms of additional theoretical coherence to the understanding of Spencer. The present article has a different primary focus, a reassessment of his substantial body of work on the professions and profe Biography of Herbert Spencer
Abstract
Introduction
Herbert Spencer and His Contributions to Sociology
The Controversial Doctrine of Social Darwinism
Herbert Spencer's theory of Social Darwinism, which predated Charles Darwin's "On the Origin of Species," applied the concept of natural selection to human societies. Spencer argued that the "fittest" individuals, or those best adapted to their environments, would prosper, while others would not, leading to a form of social evolution. This perspective was used to justify a range of social policies and ideologies, from laissez-faire capitalism to eugenics and racial segregation. It is important to note that Spencer's views were later co-opted and misapplied by groups such as the Nazis, who distorted his ideas to support their own agendas.Spencer's Organismic Analogy of Society
One of Spencer's key contributions to sociology was his organismic analogy, which compared the structure and function of society to that of a living organism. He proposed that societies, like organisms, evolve from simple to complex forms and consist of various "systems" that correspond to biological systems. For example, he likened the government to an organism's central nervous system and the economy to its circulatory system. While this analogy was innovative, it has been criticized for oversimplifying the complexities of social structures and for failing to account for the unique aspects of human agency and consciousness that differentiate societies from biological organisms.The Enduring Influence and Critique of Spencer's Ideas
Herbert Spencer's sociological theories, while groundbreaking, have been subject to significant critique. Critics have pointed out that Spencer's methodology often involved formulating grand theories that he sought to support with selective evidence, rather than subjecting his ideas to empirical testing. His organismic analogy, in particular, has been criticized for not accurately refl