Spencer's opinion. Biography of Herbert Spencer
Introduction
Herbert Spencer was born in 1820 in the small English town of Derby in the family of a school teacher. Due to poor health, Spencer could not attend school regularly and was mainly engaged in self-study. He studied the natural sciences, such as mathematics and mechanics, most in depth, paying less attention to the humanities.
Working then for almost ten years as an engineer on the railroad, Spencer continued to educate himself in free time, and in 1848 became editor of The Economist, in which he published a number of his scientific works. In 1853, having received a rich inheritance after the death of a relative, he left the service and began the life of an independent researcher and publicist.
The scientific interests of Herbert Spencer were extremely extensive, and sociology was only one of a wide range of sciences in which he was engaged, but it was in sociology that he made the most significant contribution. Herbert Spencer's first sociological work, Social Statics, was published in 1950. The most fundamental monograph, The Foundations of Sociology, which contains the holistic sociological system developed by Spencer, was written much later - in 1877.
Spencer's sociological views are usually characterized as "evolutionary-organismal theory" because the key ideas of Spencer's sociological theory are related to the results comparative analysis human society and a living organism with an emphasis on issues of development (evolution).
The connection of Spencer's sociological theory with general biology, to the greatest extent corresponding to the interests of the author of this work, and determined the choice of this topic control work.
1. Scientific and methodological foundations of G. Spencer's sociological theory
The middle of the 19th century is characterized by the widespread dissemination of the theory of Charles Darwin, which had a great influence on all areas of scientific knowledge. Sociological science at that time was in its infancy and was limited to a single major theory - the theory of its founder, the French scientist Auguste Comte, which was perceived mostly skeptically in scientific circles.
G. Spencer, following O. Comte, sought to create “such a science of society, which, like physics or biology, could discover and substantiate laws community development» . He paid special attention to the problem of impartial objectivity in social sciences. Spencer believed that basis of social biology must lie the principle of "freedom from value judgments", i.e. “the separation of what is in reality, which is confirmed by facts and can be empirically verified by other researchers, from what is desirable from the standpoint of social groups, political movements or religious (ideological) views. According to Spencer, scientists involved in social sciences, must make a conscious effort and free themselves from the inevitable addictions and prejudices.
According to Spencer, "there can be no complete acceptance of sociology as a science as long as the conviction persists that the social order does not follow the law of nature." Influenced by Darwin's theory, Spencer used evolutionary approach to the study of society, holding that all aspects of the universe, organic or inorganic, social or non-social, are subject to the laws of evolution. In his work, the author used historical comparative method analysis of extensive ethnographic material, which makes it possible to consistently trace the course of the development of society in various cultures.
As a result, Spencer came to the conclusion that for biological evolution and the development of society (social evolution) are characterized by the same patterns, and held analogy between society and biological organism. Spencer identified the following similarities between society (social organism) and a living organism:
At the same time, according to Spencer, it is impossible to completely identify the biological and social organisms, since between them there are the following main differences :
2. Social evolution: G. Spencer's ideas about the development of society
As already noted, G. Spencer considered the development of society (social evolution) not as a spontaneous process, but as a set of regular changes, which has an orderly and directed character. The evolution of human society, from Spencer's point of view, is one of the special cases of the universal law of nature, and the laws of development of society as a whole do not differ from the laws of development of any other phenomena of animate and inanimate nature.
He emphasized that social evolution (like any other) is a multi-linear process, consisting in the implementation of several trends at the same time. According to Spencer, social (supraorganic) evolution takes place in the following directions:
Thus, from Spencer's point of view, social evolution is "a transition from a state of relative uncertainty, incoherence, homogeneity to a state of relative certainty, connectedness, multifacetedness" .
Based on the concept of social evolution, Spencer developed and classification of societies, which is based on level of evolutionary complexity, i.e. stage of development at which the society is located:
According to Spencer, social evolution is carried out in stages from simple societies to complex ones, then to societies of double and further to triple complexity. In this case, the stages of complication occur sequentially. The higher the stage of development of a society, the more complex its structure, i.e. the greater the level of differentiation characteristic of a given society: “In simple societies, where the constituent parts are generally similar to each other, they can be easily interchanged. But in complex societies, the unsuccessful actions of one part cannot be taken over by other parts. Thus, complex societies are more vulnerable and more fragile in their structure than their earlier and less perfect predecessors.
Despite the fact that any society develops according to the same laws, the features of the process of social evolution of each individual society, according to Spencer, are not uniquely predetermined. Social evolution in each case is carried out under the influence of various factors of social evolution to which the author refers:
Studying the influence of these factors on the course of the process of social evolution, Spencer substantiated and formulated the following laws of development of society:
3. Structural-functional approach of G. Spencer to the study of society
Likening society to a biological organism, G. Spencer believed that a developed social organism (society) consists of organ systems ( social institutions), where each organ is connected with others and determines its functioning. The difference in the systems of the organs of society is based on the division of labor between social elements as a result of the process of differentiation characteristic of the evolution of the social organism. According to Spencer, structure of society includes the following components:
Depending on the characteristics of the regulatory (control) system of organs of the social organism, Spencer developed classification of societies according to the type of internal regulation, dividing all societies into:
According to Spencer, social evolution proceeds along the path from military-type societies to industrial-type societies. However, the author admits possibility of social regression- an industrial society can acquire the parameters of a military one, especially in international clashes. In a military society, the army and the people are merged into one, it is characterized by total control over individuals, a rigid social hierarchy, forced participation of citizens in social production, who must perform certain functional duties. All social structures the people involved in them are ultimately subordinate to the performance of the military functions of society.
Based on the fact that individuals have much greater independence and value than biological cells, and society exists for the benefit of individuals, and not vice versa, Spencer believed that in the absence of any acute adverse conditions environment, an industrial society is the optimal type of social organism: “Spencer considers the transition from a society in which the individual is entirely subordinate to the social whole to a state in which the social organism or society “serves” its constituent individuals as an essential dimension of social progress. As he wrote: "... The ideal to which we are going is a society in which management will be brought to the smallest possible limits, and freedom will reach the greatest possible breadth" .
4. Political views of G. Spencer
As already noted, Herbert Spencer was of the opinion that the evolution of society is carried out under the influence of natural laws, regardless of the desires of people, and no human intervention is required for the development of society.
Therefore, Spencer opposed any social reforms and social revolutions, implying purposeful influence of people on the development of society. According to Spencer, forcibly organized social changes lead to disruption of the natural process of development of society, to the disorganization of the structure of society and other negative consequences: “In this regard, the sociologist opposed the political acceleration of social progress, stating that any attempts to artificially push social evolution through, for example, policies to regulate supply and demand, or radical political reforms without taking into account the characteristics of the members that make up society, must turn into cataclysms and unpredictable consequences. Interference with the natural order of nature, Spencer noted, often turns out that no one can predict the final results.
Proceeding from his postulate that society exists for individuals, and not individuals for society, Spencer was an implacable opponent of ideology socialism. He was convinced that “socialism in any form implies slavery. He considered forced labor to be a characteristic feature of slavery. The degree of slavery depends on how much the slave must give and how much he can keep for himself, and who is his master - an individual or society, does not matter in principle. If a person has to give all his labor to society and receive from the common property only that part that society assigns to him, he is a slave of society.
Spencer's attitude towards the state and state power was ambiguous. On the one hand, the author noted that "political organization, constantly spreading to ever greater masses, directly promotes well-being, removing those obstacles to cooperation that arise from the antagonism of individuals" . On the other hand, “political organization also has its disadvantages, and cases are quite possible when these disadvantages outweigh the benefits ... Organization implies certain restrictions on individuals, and these restrictions can reach such extreme limits that they become worse than anarchy with all its disasters” .
Spencer believed that state power should be based on the idea of justice and adhere to the following basic principles :
- Recognition for every person of the right to free activity and to use its results;
- Recognition of the known limitations of this freedom, necessary due to the presence of other people who have the same rights.
The meaning of the existence of state power, according to Spencer, comes down to protection of the rights of individuals (citizens) and collective protection from external opponents. “Everything else must be left to the free initiative of individuals entering into agreements with each other ... a good society is based on agreements between individuals pursuing their respective interests. Where the state intervenes in these conciliation arrangements, whether for the purpose of increasing social welfare or otherwise, it either disrupts the social order or leads to the discarding of the achievements of industrial society and a return to earlier forms of a tyrannical and militant social order.
Conclusion
G. Spencer's sociological views were widely spread among his contemporaries and “were enthusiastically discussed in university auditoriums and fashionable 'intellectual' salons, editorial offices of magazines and in respectable clubs. Discussions about Spencer are led by the heroes of two of Jack London's most serious works, The Sea Wolf and Martin Eden. Even Charles Darwin himself recognized the serious influence that the work of H. Spencer had on him.
The term "sociology" itself, thanks to Spencer, received a second birth, since Comte's theory was considered utopian and was not taken seriously in scientific circles. Therefore, Spencer is considered the second founder sociology as a science: the author "made a decisive contribution to the transformation of sociology into a science, to its purification from the messianic, utopian, political, mystical and other impurities with which it was born" .
G. Spencer laid the foundation for the formation conceptual system of sociology: he “for the first time in the history of sociology tried to give a systematic presentation of the subject, tasks and problems of sociology. He introduced many widely used sociological terms into sociology: social system, social institution, social control, structure and function and others".
In addition, Spencer was the first in an expanded form to develop a general scientific approach, which later became known as general theory systems, and apply it to human society.
Thus, Spencer's sociological theory played a large role in the development of sociology as a science.
Bibliography
- American Sociological Thought: Texts / Ed. V.I. Dobrenkov. - M.: Publishing house of Moscow State University, 1994. - 496 p.
- Volkov Yu.G., Mostovaya I.V. Sociology: Textbook for universities / Ed. prof. IN AND. Dobrenkov. – M.: Gardarika, 1998. – 244 p.
- Kolovskaya L.V. Sociology. Tutorial. - Krasnoyarsk: Publishing House of KSTU, 1999. - 156 p.
- Spencer G. Foundations of sociology // Texts on the history of sociology of the XIX-XX centuries. Reader / Comp. and resp. ed. Ph.D. IN AND. Dobrenkov, Ph.D. L.P. Belenkov. – M.: Nauka, 1994 – 383 p.
- Spencer G. Sociology as a subject of study // Texts on the history of sociology of the XIX-XX centuries. Reader / Comp. and resp. ed. Ph.D. IN AND. Dobrenkov, Ph.D. L.P. Belenkov. – M.: Nauka, 1994 – 383 p.
History of sociology in Western Europe and the USA. Textbook for universities / Ed. Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences G.V. Osipov. - M .: Publishing house "Norma" (Publishing group "Norma - Infra-M"), 2001. - 576 p.
Gromov I.A., Matskevich A.Yu. Western theoretical sociology. Sociological views of G. Spencer. - Library "Bookinist's Regiment" (www.polbu.ru).
Kravchenko S.A. Sociology: paradigms through the lens of the sociological imagination. - M., 2002. - 314 p.
History of sociology in Western Europe and the USA. Textbook for universities / Ed. Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences G.V. Osipov. - M .: Publishing house "Norma" (Publishing group "Norma - Infra-M"), 2001. - 576 p.
Sociology as a science. Textbook. In 2 parts - Online library at www.zipsites.ru.
Hoffman A.B. Seven Lectures on the History of Sociology: tutorial for universities. – 5th ed. - M .: Book house "University", 2001. - 216 p.
Sociology: A Course of Lectures for Students of All Directions and Specialties / Ed. V.A. Mikhailov. - Ulyanovsk: UlGTU, 2004. - 207 p.
Herbert Spencer is an English sociologist, one of the founders of evolutionism, whose ideas were widely popular at the end of the 19th century. The sociological views of the scientist were influenced by the views of Saint-Simon and Comte, and the development of the idea of evolution was influenced by Lamarck, K. Baer, Smith, Malthus. He was closely acquainted with J. Eliot, J. Lewis, T. Huxley, J. S. Mill and J. Tyndall, in last years life with B. Webb.
Spencer turned down an offer to get an education at Cambridge, he studied science on his own. He worked as an associate editor at The Economist. By 1870, he took up sociology, having left work and received a large inheritance, he traveled with lectures around the world, although he did not read the works of other scientists, he communicated a lot with people of his rank. There were many errors in his writings, which gradually became more and more obvious. During several trips to France, he had the opportunity to personally meet O. Comte, whose work he respected the most.
Sociology of Spencer
The features of Spencer's science are the ideas of progress, evolutionism; and the further development of Comte's positivism. Foundations of Spencer's Sociology:
1. Evolutionism. In his Foundations of Biology, Spencer develops the ideas of Darwinism in a sociological sense. In his opinion, the strongest survive in society, the existence of rivalry and struggle is natural.
2. Organismic theory. Society is like some kind of biological organism in its structure and functioning.
Evolution according to Spencer is a continuous growth of science from simple undifferentiated homogeneity to a complex of differentiated heterogeneity.
It was Spencer who introduced the concepts of differentiation and integration.
Differentiation is the emergence from a certain homogeneity of diversity; division into forms and steps; the emergence in the body in the process of development of morphological and functional differences.
Integration is the emergence of integrity, unity in the system, based on the complementarity and interdependence of individual elements.
Evolutionism
Spencer shared the opinion of O. Comte that social physics is an exact science, adjacent to biology, constituting with it a single physics of organized bodies. Spencer tried to explain the phenomena occurring in society with the help of a biological analogy. For example, he transferred the principles of natural selection to society, considering them as a universal way of human existence.
Spencer distinguishes 2 types of society - military and industrial. A classic example of a military society is Sparta, its distinctive features- submission internal structures striving for the struggle for survival and aggression; the dominance of the collective over the individual, the hierarchy of the structure of the management of society, discipline, conservatism.
England can be called an example of an industrial society, its features are opposite to a military society, that is, decentralized management of society, pluralism, protection and preservation of human rights, innovation and development of society, expansion of the privacy.
Spencer, in describing industrial society, relied on scientific foresight, an assumption of how society will look like in the future, because during the years of the scientist's life, industry had just begun to develop.
Societies can organize and control their own processes of adaptation, and then they develop towards militaristic regimes; they can also allow free and flexible adaptation and then turn into industrialized states.
Spencer also divides societies into:
1. Simple;
2. Complex (there is a hierarchy, the structure of the division of labor);
3. Double complexity (government, everything lives according to the laws);
4. Triple difficulty.
Another typology of societies according to Spencer:
1. Nomadic;
2. Semi-settled;
3. Settled.
The evolution of human society does not differ from other evolutionary processes occurring in nature. Sociology will live as a science only when, Spencer believed, when it recognizes the idea of an evolutionary natural law. If sociology believes that the development of society is contrary to the laws of nature, then it cannot be called a science. Spencer was one of the first to draw attention to the division of labor, and began to divide production into the simplest processes.
Social evolution, according to the thinker, is a process of increasing individualization, movement from society to man.
Social progress, like any other types of progress, is not unilinear, it spreads and diverges, and emerging groups differ more and more significantly, genera and stereotypes of societies arise.
Spencer's evolutionary theory, thanks to the inclusion of factors of stagnation and regression, becomes undoubtedly more flexible, although it loses its integrity.
Organism theory
Spencer considered obvious the similarity of society with a biological organism, both in structure and functioning. The similarity was in the following factors:
1. Growth. Both the organism and society tend to grow and develop.
2. Society consists of individuals as an organism - of cells.
3. Complication. Society has a structure similar to an organism - from an individual (cell) to institutions (internal organs) and to the whole society as a whole (organism).
4. Differentiation. The division of individuals into classes and groups, their desire to unite with their own kind is similar to the division of cells into various fabrics.
5. Interaction. Individuals interact with each other like cells that exchange different chemicals.
However, there are also differences:
1. Unlike a biological organism, which has a specific form, the elements of society are scattered in space, have significant autonomy (freedom of movement, at least, they can leave one society and join another).
2. There is no single organ in society that concentrates the ability to feel and think.
3. An important difference between a society and an organism is the spatial mobility of structural elements.
4. The organism consists of parts and exists for the sake of the whole unity, and the whole in society - for the sake of parts.
Spencer solved the problem of the relationship between the individual and society by referring to their interaction. He assumed that in the early stages of evolution, the biological essence of a person determines the properties of the social aggregate, and in the future, the properties of the whole play a decisive role in the evolution of society.
After differentiation, society needs to coordinate the activities of individual groups. According to Spencer, the Church should be separated from the state. In a society for normal evolution, the following systems must exist:
1. Supporting (production of necessary products);
2. Distribution (distribution of benefits based on the division of labor);
3. Regulatory (organization of parts based on their subordination to the whole).
It was Herbert Spencer who first introduced the concept of a social institution into sociology.
A social institution is a mechanism for self-organization of the joint life of people. The scientist identified groups of social institutions:
1. Domestic (family, marriage, upbringing problems - reproduce the stages of family evolution);
2. Ritual (otherwise called Ritual, or Ceremonial, their essence is rituals, customs, traditions. They regulate the daily behavior of people);
3. Political (political organization and class division of society. Associated with the transfer of intra-group conflicts to the sphere of conflicts between groups);
4. Church (ensures the integration of society);
5. Professional (appear on the basis of the division of labor and the emergence of professions. They unite people into groups according to professional characteristics) and industrial (industrial. Support the production structure of society);
6. Rights (was added later).
The values of institutions increase in the process of transition from a military type of society to an industrial one. Industrial institutions are beginning to play a particularly important role, assuming all most public functions and regulating labor relations.
The scientist believed that conflicts and wars played essential role in the formation of the political and class structure of society. The forces that create the state are war and labor, and in the early stages of evolution, military actions were decisive, since it is the need to defend and attack that most of all unites society and disciplines it. At the next stages of evolution, labor (social production) acted as a unifying force, and direct violence gives way to internal self-restraint.
Spencer's theory of social institutions is an attempt at a systematic study of society. The concept of institutions reproduces
the image of society by analogy with biological organisms, for example, money is likened to blood particles
Spencer introduced the term "superorganism", which emphasized the autonomy of the individual from society.
Spencer in his scientific papers relied on empirical bases of analogy and historical data. In the course of his reasoning, he discovered that among the entire history of mankind there is no history of "the people", only the history of kings, churches, etc. It was under him that the concept of a “new” history appeared - concerning the people too. Content itself historical process is presented as a gradual transition from mechanical coercion to organic association based on common interests.
Spencer was never able to overcome the dilemma of realism and nominalism, on the one hand emphasizing the special role of "human nature", and on the other hand, referring to the action of the artificial environment, supra-individual forces, the social organism.
Spencer postulates:
1. The average level of development of society is determined by the average level of development of its members (that is, from the "ruling");
2. The law of survival of the strongest and best in society explains the existence of competition and struggle between individuals, makes it a natural and integral part of the evolution of society.
English researcher Herbert Spencer (1820-1903) - the successor of the Comte, positivist line in philosophy and sociology, the founder of the organic school in sociology, who made in the second half of the 19th century. a new major step forward towards the formation of sociology as an independent science, especially in the field of a systematic and structural-functional approach to the study of society. His main work, The Foundations of Sociology (1896), contained ideas and principles that outlived their author for a long time and were very often borrowed by many of the greatest sociologists of the 20th century.
At the heart of social Spencer's views were based on 2 starting points closely related to Darwin's teachings:
1) Understanding society as a social. an organism similar to a biological organism and subject to the same laws of organization, functioning and development.
2) The doctrine of universal evolution, according to which any phenomenon of the inorganic, organic and supraorganic world is part of overall process evolution, because there is only one evolution going on in the same way everywhere.
Drawing a constant analogy between biological and social. organisms, Spencer identifies such common features as the growth and complexity of the structure, the differentiation of functions and the strengthening of their interaction with the structure. Relationship between public structures similar to the interaction of the organs of a living organism. Meanwhile, society is a superorganism, because in it the individual is less dependent on the social. whole and society as a whole, consisting of separate individuals, serves the good of its members. The main thing for Spencer is a direct study not of society as a whole, but of the individual and his others. structural elements, their traits and interactions. His sociological views are seen as an example of an individualistic approach to the study of society and its evolution. Spencer's naturalistic ideas are inseparable from his evolutionism in sociology.
The subject of sociology is the study of the growth, development, structure and function of the social aggregate. Evolution is the source of any natural and social phenomenon, based on the manifestation and interaction of two opposite processes: integration and disintegration, because evolution - the integration of matter and the scattering of motion.
Social evolution acts as an automatic, by and large, predetermined process of alternating development and decomposition of certain societies. In accordance with this, Spencer classified societies according to their degree of complexity, and social. progress was seen in a consistent rise to more and more complicated levels of the organization of society. In this regard, he subdivided societies into:
simple,
complex,
Doubly,
triple complex,
proceeding from the fact that the more developed a society, the more complex it is, i.e. more differentiated in structural and functional respects.
Another classification of society is related to the delimitation of their social organization depending on the nature of the dominant activity in it. Spencer distinguished:
bellicose and
Industrial types of societies.
In the first, the social organization is based on a rigid hierarchical structure, an extensive apparatus, high centralization, the individual is actually deprived of freedom, dissolved in society. Secondly, not external, but internal peaceful goals are pursued, main task the education of the members of society is in favor of the state, and persuasion and law are replacing violence and coercion. The transition from the first to the second society occurs as a result of normal social. evolution. Spencer opposed revolutionary social changes, was a supporter of social development, the preservation of the existing social system as a natural state of society, arising from the law of evolution of nature and society. He was an opponent of the principles of socialism, considering it unnecessary to eliminate competition and inequality.
Spencer's merit in sociology lies primarily in the fact that for the first time he managed to elaborate and deeply for his time systems approach applied to society and connect it with evolutionism. He was the first to use such important categories of sociology as social. system, social structure, social function, social institute, social control. Bringing to the fore the study of the structure of society and the functions of its elements, Spencer laid the foundations of the structural-functional trend in sociology, which later became widespread and influenced (Parson, Merton).
The historical limitations of Spencer's teaching manifested itself primarily in his biologism, mechanism and evolutionism. Their insufficiency and limitations were already revealed by the end of the 19th century, which caused criticism of his views both from natural scientists and philosophers, social scientists and sociologists.
SPENCER, HERBERT(Spencer, Herbert) (1820-1903) - English philosopher and sociologist, ideologist of social Darwinism.
Born in the family of a teacher April 27, 1820 in Derby. Until the age of 13, due to poor health, he did not attend school. In 1833 he began to study at the University of Cambridge, but after completing a three-year preparatory course he went home and took up self-education. In the future, he never received any scientific degree and did not hold academic posts, which he did not regret at all.
As a youth, Spencer was more interested in mathematics and science than in the humanities. From 1837 he began to work as a construction engineer railway. His outstanding abilities showed up even then: he invented a tool for measuring the speeds of locomotives. He soon realized that the profession he had chosen did not give him a solid financial position and did not satisfy his spiritual needs. In 1841 Spencer took a break from his engineering career and spent two years educating himself. In 1843 he again returned to his former profession, heading the engineering bureau. Having received in 1846 a patent for the sawing and planing machine he invented, Spencer unexpectedly cut short his successful technical career and went into scientific journalism, while working on his own works.
In 1848 he became assistant editor of The Economist, and in 1850 completed his main work social static. This work was given to the author very hard - he began to suffer from insomnia. AT further problems with health only multiplied and resulted in a series of nervous breakdowns. In 1853 he received an inheritance from his uncle, which made him financially independent and allowed him to become a free scientist. After leaving his journalistic post, he devoted himself entirely to the development and publication of his works.
His project was to write and publish by subscription a multi-volume synthetic philosophy- an encyclopedic system of all scientific knowledge. The first experience was unsuccessful: the publication of the series had to be stopped due to the overwork of the philosopher and the lack of interest among readers. He was on the verge of poverty. He was saved by an acquaintance with an American publisher who undertook to publish his works in the United States, where Spencer gained wide popularity earlier than in England. Gradually, his name became known, the demand for his books increased, and by 1875 he fully covered the losses and began to profit from the publication of his works. During this period, such of his works as two-volume principles of biology (The Principles of Biology, 2 vol., 1864–1867), three books Foundations of psychology (The Principles of Psychology 1855, 1870–1872) and three-volume Foundations of sociology (The Principles of Sociology, 3 vol., 1876-1896). His numerous works soon became very popular and published in large numbers in all countries of the world (including Russia)
The central idea of all his work was the idea of evolution. By evolution, he understood the transition from an indefinite, incoherent homogeneity to a definite, coherent heterogeneity. Spencer showed that evolution is an integral feature of the entire world around us and is observed not only in all areas of nature, but also in science, art, religion and philosophy.
Spencer identified three types of evolution: inorganic, organic and supraorganic. Superorganic evolution is the subject of sociology, which deals both with the description of the process of development of society and the formulation of the basic laws by which this evolution proceeds.
He compared the structure of society with a biological organism: individual parts are analogous separate parts organisms, each of which performs its own function. He singled out three systems of organs (social institutions) - supporting (production), distributive (communication) and regulatory (management). Any society must adapt to new conditions in order to survive. environment This is how natural selection works. In the course of such adaptation, an ever stronger specialization of individual parts of society occurs. As a result, like an organism, society evolves from simpler forms to more complex ones.
Using for Research social development concepts of biological evolution (this was called social Darwinism), Spencer largely contributed to the popularization of the ideas of "natural selection" in society and the "struggle for existence", which became the basis for "scientific" racism.
Another important idea of his was the allocation of two historical types of society - military and industrial. In doing so, he continued the tradition of formational analysis of social evolution established by Henri Saint-Simon and Karl Marx.
For societies of the military type, according to Spencer, the struggle for existence in the form of armed clashes, ending in the enslavement or destruction of the enemy, is characteristic. Cooperation in such a society is compulsory. Here, each worker is engaged in his craft and himself delivers the manufactured product to the consumer.
Gradually, society grows and there is a transition from home production to factory production. Thus, a new type of society arises - industrial. Here, too, there is a struggle for existence, but in the form of competition. This type of struggle is associated with abilities and intellectual development individuals and ultimately benefits not only the winners, but society as a whole. This society based on voluntary cooperation.
Spencer's great merit was the recognition that the process of evolution is not straightforward. He pointed out that the industrial type of society can again regress into a military one. Criticizing popular socialist ideas, he called socialism a return to the principles of a military society with the characteristic features of slavery.
Even during his lifetime, Spencer was recognized as one of the most outstanding thinkers of the 19th century. Today, his contribution to the development of science, to the promotion of evolutionary ideas, continues to be appreciated quite highly, although in the eyes of modern sociologists he loses in popularity, for example, to Emile Durkheim or Max Weber, whose works during Spencer's lifetime were much less famous.
Works by G. Spencer (selected): Collected Works, tt. 1–3, 5, 6. St. Petersburg, 1866–1869; social static. Exposition of the Laws Conditioning the Happiness of Mankind. St. Petersburg, 1872, St. Petersburg, 1906; Foundations of sociology, tt. 1–2. St. Petersburg, 1898; Autobiography, ch. 1–2. St. Petersburg, Education, 1914 ; Scientific, political and philosophical experiments, vol. 1–3; Foundations of psychology. - In the book: Spencer G., Tsigen T. Associative psychology. M., AST, 1998.
Natalia Latova
The famous positivist philosopher Herbert Spencer was born in England, in the county of Derby on April 27, 1820. In his early youth, Spencer was a civil engineer, but already in 1845 he left this profession and devoted himself entirely to science. In addition to a number of scientific and journalistic articles that were originally placed in various periodicals, and then published separately in three volumes under the general title: "Essays" ("Experiments"), Spencer wrote: "Social Statics", "The Study of Sociology", "Education" and "The System of Synthetic Philosophy". it last composition is the main work that gave Herbert Spencer worldwide fame. Under the general title: "The System of Synthetic Philosophy" a number of volumes have been published, which, although connected by general ideas, can to a large extent be considered as separate works. "Synthetic Philosophy" consists of: one theme of "Basic Principles", two volumes of "Foundations of Biology", two volumes of "Foundations of Psychology", three volumes of "Foundations of Sociology" and two volumes of "Foundations of the Science of Morality".
In The Fundamentals, Herbert Spencer lays out the most general provisions of his philosophy. Based on the principle of the relativity of knowledge, he comes to the typical for all positivists conclusion that "final scientific ideas correspond to realities which cannot be comprehended", that "the reality behind all appearances must forever remain unknowable", and philosophy must, therefore, concentrate on the study of not entities things, but given to us in experience relations between them. Passing into the realm of this "knowable", Spencer begins by defining philosophy as a completely unified knowledge. From this point of view, two forms of philosophy can be distinguished: a general philosophy, in which particular truths serve to elucidate universal truths, and a particular philosophy, in which recognized universal truths serve to interpret particular truths. The Fundamental Principles deals with the philosophy of the first kind, and all other parts of the Synthetic Philosophy are devoted to the philosophy of the second kind.
English philosopher Herbert Spencer
The main teaching of Herbert Spencer is the doctrine of evolution, which he defines as follows: "Evolution is the integration of matter and the accompanying dispersion of motion, and matter passes from a state of indefinite, incoherent homogeneity to a state of definite, coherent heterogeneity, and the preserved motion undergoes parallel changes." It is impossible not to point out the similarity of Spencer's ideas about evolution with the doctrine von Baer However, Spencer expanded Baer's thought so much and reworked it in such an original way that his right to be considered a completely independent creator of the teaching he expounds cannot be questioned. Herbert Spencer considers the “instability of the homogeneous” to be the main cause of evolution. Endless and absolute homogeneity, according to his ideas, would be quite stable, but in the absence of such homogeneity, a redistribution of matter and force inevitably begins, in which different parts of the homogeneous are subjected to unequal action of external forces, and as a result, the homogeneous turns into heterogeneous. In the end, the principle of conservation (constancy) of force underlies all the phenomena of evolution. Thus, Spencer takes the undoubted and generally accepted principle of the conservation of energy as the main starting point of his ideas, and his entire doctrine of evolution is a logical conclusion from this principle. The weak side of Spencer's ideas lies in the insufficiently developed theory of knowledge, in the fact that he operates on the concepts of matter and force without sufficient criticism, and the very doctrine of the relativity of knowledge is assimilated by him in the unsatisfactory form in which it was before him. Although the doctrine of physical evolution, as a transition from an indefinite, incoherent homogeneity to a definite, coherent heterogeneity, cannot be fully recognized erroneous, it is undoubtedly inadequate. Then the doctrine of the cause of the evolution of matter underwent especially profound changes.
In Foundations of Biology, Herbert Spencer develops ideas about the application of the law of evolution to organic world, to the phenomena of life, which he defines as "the continuous adaptation of internal relations to external relations." The main idea that lies at the center of Spencer's biology is the doctrine of the dependence of the manifestations of life on the environment. The interactions of the organism and the environment are subject, according to Spencer, to the mechanical law of equality of action and reaction. All changes in organic matter are aimed at establishing a balance between the action of the environment and the resistance of the organism. This balance is established either by direct balancing, when an external force directly causes known structural changes, or by indirect balancing - Darwinian natural selection. Thus, in the question of the origin of species, Herbert Spencer recognizes as Lamarckian the principle of inheritance of functionally acquired changes, and Darwinian principle of natural selection. The principle of transmission to offspring of functionally acquired changes in the course of further development biology has not been confirmed.
The Foundations of Psychology are distinguished by the greatest wealth of ideas. Here Spencer studies the evolution of the spirit. Proceeding from the most elementary manifestations of spiritual life, step by step, constantly remaining true to his basic method, he reproduces the structure of its most complex manifestations. Then, taking the most complex manifestations of the spirit, he, by analysis, gradually decomposes them into their elementary constituent parts. spiritual life and outside world. According to Spencer, mental phenomena are subjective expressions of external reality. In his "Psychology" Herbert Spencer takes an original position in the dispute between sensationalists, who assert that there is nothing in the spirit that was not previously in sensation, and a priorists who, in one form or another, recognized that some spiritual phenomena do not depend on sensations. Spencer acknowledges the existence of innate "forms of thought" (and contemplation), but argues that these "forms" are the product of psychic evolution, that they are nothing but the recorded experience of ancestors. Being innate to us, they owe their historical origin to experience.
The Foundations of Sociology by Herbert Spencer is almost as rich in secondary ideas as The Foundations of Psychology. As for the main idea, it is still the same here - the idea of evolution. In Parts 3, 4, 5, and 6 of The Foundations of Sociology, Spencer studies the evolution of domestic, ritual, political, and ecclesiastical institutions; in the first two parts, "The Data of Sociology" and "The Guidance of Sociology" are examined. Of the sociological ideas of Spencer, the doctrine of the origin of primitive beliefs and the doctrine of the analogy between society and the organism.
Two volumes of Foundations of the Science of Morality are devoted to the study of the evolution of morality. Spencer is a strong supporter of utilitarianism, which, however, in its revision is hedonism (a philosophical theory that puts pleasure at the forefront).
The philosophy of Herbert Spencer received very different assessments even among his contemporaries. Some scientists ( J. Stuart Mill, Lewis, Ribot) considered Spencer a first-class genius, one of the greatest philosophers, but others, paying tribute to his comprehensive information and the richness of his basic ideas, still refused to recognize Spencer as a mind of the first category. However, it can hardly be denied that already the scheme of evolution and the ingenious attempts to reconcile sensualists and apriorists made the teachings of Herbert Spencer rather important fact in the history of philosophy.