Block, Siteadmin, SkipCaptcha, Upload, Automoderated users, delete, edit, move, nsTeam2RO, nsTeam2RW, nsTeam2_talkRO, nsTeam2_talkRW, protect, rollback, Administrators, template
293,711
edits
Changes
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
Line 24:
Line 24: − + +
→Social Statics
Spencer's ideas appeared first in magazine articles and were published in a series of books that he constantly rewrote and revised. His most important ideas (on evolution, especially) appeared in the 1850s and 1860s, and after 1870 or so he had little new to say.
Spencer's ideas appeared first in magazine articles and were published in a series of books that he constantly rewrote and revised. His most important ideas (on evolution, especially) appeared in the 1850s and 1860s, and after 1870 or so he had little new to say.
===Social Statics===
===Social Statics===
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.
{{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.