121
edits
Changes
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
Line 13:
Line 13: + + − + +
no edit summary
His first book ''Social Statics'' (1850) was a utopian portrayal of an ideal society. He believed that human society was governed by fixed natural laws, and the government should be limited to enforcing those natural laws. He stressed the need for society to adjust to the material environment and proclaimed a libertarian principle of "equal freedom" for each individual, limited only by "the similar freedoms of all." He denied the legitimacy of private property in land, argued for the equality of men and women as a moral ideal, and said children should be educated through persuasion and rational argument rather than discipline and coercion.
His first book ''Social Statics'' (1850) was a utopian portrayal of an ideal society. He believed that human society was governed by fixed natural laws, and the government should be limited to enforcing those natural laws. He stressed the need for society to adjust to the material environment and proclaimed a libertarian principle of "equal freedom" for each individual, limited only by "the similar freedoms of all." He denied the legitimacy of private property in land, argued for the equality of men and women as a moral ideal, and said children should be educated through persuasion and rational argument rather than discipline and coercion.
===Evolution===
===Evolution===
{{cquote|It cannot but happen that those individuals whose functions are most out of equilibrium with the modified aggregate of external forces, will be those to die; and that those will survive whose functions happen to be most nearly in equilibrium with the modified aggregate of external forces.
But this survival of the fittest, implies multiplication of the fittest. Out of the fittest thus multiplied, there will, as before, be an overthrowing of the moving equilibrium wherever it presents the least opposing force to the new incident force.|||''The Principles of Biology'', Vol. I (1864), Part III: The Evolution of Life, Ch. 7: Indirect Equilibration}}
In 1852 Spencer published a major article that articulated the idea of biological evolution and which had a major influence on [[Charles Darwin]]'s theory of evolution which appeared in 1859. In ‘The development hypothesis’, Spencer attacked "special-creationism", and proclaimed an evolutionary model of the natural world, based on a process of continuous small changes: "Surely if a single cell … may become a man in the space of twenty years … there is nothing absurd in the hypothesis that … a cell may, in the course of millions of years, give origin to the human race."
In 1852 Spencer published a major article that articulated the idea of biological evolution and which had a major influence on [[Charles Darwin]]'s theory of evolution which appeared in 1859. In ‘The development hypothesis’, Spencer attacked "special-creationism", and proclaimed an evolutionary model of the natural world, based on a process of continuous small changes: "Surely if a single cell … may become a man in the space of twenty years … there is nothing absurd in the hypothesis that … a cell may, in the course of millions of years, give origin to the human race."
Spencer's second book, ''The Principles of Psychology,'' (1855) said that the human mind was the product of environmentally generated organic evolution; it came under attack for its atheism and materialism.
Spencer's second book, ''The Principles of Psychology,'' (1855) said that the human mind was the product of environmentally generated organic evolution; it came under attack for its atheism and materialism.
===Education===
===Education===
His essays on education, ''Education: Intellectual, Moral and Physical'' (1861) ridiculed the usual practice of [[cramming]], the dominance of Latin and Greek in the upper class schools, and excessive attention to the stories of kings and queens. He recommended instead a program of "self-development", based on problem-solving, empirical geometry, healthy exercise, drawing from observation, and natural science. He said children should be taught and disciplined, not by artificial grades and punishments but by having to accept the consequences of their actions, with the "impersonal agency of Nature" replacing "the personal agency of parents."
His essays on education, ''Education: Intellectual, Moral and Physical'' (1861) ridiculed the usual practice of [[cramming]], the dominance of Latin and Greek in the upper class schools, and excessive attention to the stories of kings and queens. He recommended instead a program of "self-development", based on problem-solving, empirical geometry, healthy exercise, drawing from observation, and natural science. He said children should be taught and disciplined, not by artificial grades and punishments but by having to accept the consequences of their actions, with the "impersonal agency of Nature" replacing "the personal agency of parents."