Showing results by author "Herbert Spencer" in All Categories

Herbert Spencer (1820-1903) was already an established figure in the fields of philosophy, biology, sociology, anthropology and with an established interest in evolution, when Darwin produced his ground-breaking On the Origin of the Species (1859). But Spencer viewed evolution in wider terms—including ‘the social organism, ethical and metaphysical matters.' He was keen to offer a complete framework of the philosophy of evolution and, in 1862, published his First Principles.

Social Statics, or The Conditions essential to Happiness specified, and the First of them Developed is an 1851 book by the British polymath Herbert Spencer. In it, he uses the term "fitness" in applying his ideas of Lamarckian evolution to society, saying for example that "It is clear that any being whose constitution is to be moulded into fitness for new conditions of existence must be placed under those conditions. Or, putting the proposition specifically — it is clear that man can become adapted to the social state, only by being retained in the social state. This granted, it follows that...

Hebert Spencer coined the famous expression “survival of the fittest”. Spencer’s theory inspired Andrew Carnegie and William Graham Sumner's visions of unbridled and unrepentant capitalism of the United States in late 19th century. Carnegie interpreted Spencer's social theory as justifying merciless economic competition. Spencer's reputation was not recovered for many years from the interpretative caricatures of many scholars, thus marginalizing him to the hinterlands of intellectual history. Fortunately, recent scholarship has begun restoring and repairing his legacy.

In questa opera del 1884, il filosofo Herbert Spencer esprime il suo pensiero politico. La negazione di ogni interferenza dello Stato con la vita sociale (assistenzialismo, risoluzione conflitti sociali) fa di Spencer un sostenitore del liberalismo politico, anche se, contrariamente allo stereotipo che lo vede come un ultraconservatore, Spencer era simpatizzante delle istanze libertarie, anti-imperialista, anticoloniale, contrario alla schiavit in ogni sua forma, e sostenitore di un modello di produzione basato sulle cooperative piuttosto che sul lavoro salariato.