HERBERT SPENCER
Part One : LIFE
He was born in Derby, England on April 27, 1820. He was the eldest child of nine children, but the only
one to survive infancy. He had weak and sickly childhood . His father and many of his
family members was teacher. However, He hadn't educated formally. George taught him
Sciences and Math, but education was weak in other areas because he thaught Spencer
from an extremist nonconformist perspective. His entire family was very nonconformist and
individualistic. He worked as civil engineer for railway but in his early 20s, turned to
journalism and political writing. He became a subeditor for The Economist. Then he
finished first book named Social statics. Upon the death of his uncle Thomas, in 1853,
Spencer received a small inheritance which allowed him to devote himself to writing
without depending on regular employment. In 1855, He wrote second book named The
Principles Of Pschology. It wasnt's succesful as much as first book. About this time he
experienced serious health problems that affected him for the rest of his life. He could
write for only few hours each day. His published works are The social Organism, First
Principles, Principles of Biology, The study of sociology, The principles of Ethics- many
volumes, The Principles of Sociology- many volumes, The Man Versus the State and
Autobiography .
Part Two : Spencer's Ideas
The most memorable idea of the english philosopher Herbert spencer was his
assertion that the passing of time withnesses “the survival of the fittest”. He used this
words for refer to society. As a biologist, He thought that society mirrored biology. His
social darwinist idea is that if you compete among society, the most intelligent,
ambitious, and productive people will inevitably win out. He supporting this cruel
competition, thinking that as the fittest survived, society would undergo steady
improvements. Thus he think that don't help poor people because this movement drag
society down. Therefore, of course industrialists applauded spencer. Spencer's thoughts
about economy is goverments shouldn't interfere to economy. The most financial giant
Rockeffeller, often recited Spencer's “social gospel” to young children in Sunday school,
casting the growth of giant corporations as merely the naturally ordained “survival of the
fittest”. Others, contrarily stand the idea, because they aren' t in a jungle. Socaity's
worthy is much than a selfish jungle. Thus, social darwinism fell out of favour among social
scientists, though it still surfaces today as an influential element of conservative political
thought.
Part Three : The System Of Synthetic Philosophy
Spencer was standing his generation's ideas because orthodox mentality was
weaken against modern sicence mentality. His philosophy system added fundementals to
understanding excellence of human such as such as the first law of thermodynamics and
biological evolution. In essence Spencer's philosophical vision was formed by a
combination of deism and positivism. On the one hand, he had learned something of
eighteenth century deism from his father and other members of the Derby Philosophical
Society and from books.
He refer about this world as design of the universe and rules of nature's “Being
transcendentally kind”. Well planned nature rules by the creator, objected for providing
human hapiness.
Beyond the accepting positivist ideas, he thought conception of a philosophical
system as compound with other branches of scientific knowledge. He followed positivism
because positivism provides only genuine knowledge without speculative ideas about
nature of reality. His system of synthetic philosophy, reflected his tension between
positivisim and deisim. Spencer followed comte for certainity of scientific knowledge. He
justified like comte that laws of nature are valid for the universe. The first objective of the
synthetic philosophy was that, all the events in the universe can be explained in natural
laws. Spencer studyed branches like biology, sociology, psychology for proving that natural
laws monitoring in different scientific disciplines. It is obvious in his writings about ethics
that, laws of ethics and laws of nature have same contents.
The second objective of the Synthetic Philosophy was to show that these same
laws are merciless. Contary to Comte' s wholeness of scientific method, Spencer believe
that scientific knowledge is a form of natural laws and it is the reduction of evolutional
laws.
Part Four : Evolution
Spencers's first article about his evolutional perspective named “Progress: Its Law and Cause” published in 1857 and formed to “First Principles of a New System of Philosophy”. This article included some ideas from Samuel Taylor Coleridge' s “The Theory of Life” and law of embryological development. He explained an evolutional theory. Spencer thought that all tha structures in the universe develop from a simple, undifferentiated, homogeneity to a complex, differentiated, heterogeneity, while being accompanied by a process of greater integration of the differentiated parts.(Spencer evrendeki bütün oluşumların basit, değişime uğramamamış ve homojenlikten karmaşık, değişime uğramış ve heterojen bir hale, daha çok değişime uğrayan parçalarla entegre olduğu bir süreçten geçerek oluştuğunu ileri sürer) This evolutionary process could be found at all the universe. It was a universal law, applying to the stars and the galaxies as much as to biological organisms, and to human social organization as much as to the human mind. It differed from other scientific laws because it is too general and special siences laws are an example for it's princple.
This attempt to explain the evolution of complexity was radically different from that to be found in Darwin’s Origin of Species which was published two years later. Spencer is often, quite erroneously, believed to have only appropriated and generalized Darwin’s work on natural selection. The primary mechanism of species transformation that he recognized was Lamarckian use-inheritance which posited that organs are developed or are diminished by use or disuse and that the resulting changes may be transmitted to future generations. This evolutional mechanism is important for explaining “high evolution” especially for humanitys social devolopment. Spencer, in contrast to Darwin, he thought that evolution had a direction and an end-point, the attainment of a final state of ”equilibrium”.
Part Five : Sociology
The evolutionary progression from simple, undifferentiated homogeneity to complex, differentiated heterogeneity was exemplified, Spencer argued, by the development of society.(Evrimin; basit, farklılaşmamış homojenlikten karmaşık, farklılaşmış heterojenliğe ilerleyişi Spencer'a göre toplumun gelişimi ile açıklanmıştı.) He developed a theory of two types of society, the militant and the industrial, which corresponded to this evolutionary progression. Militant society, structured around relationships of hierarchy and obedience, was simple and undifferentiated; industrial society, based on voluntary, contractually assumed social obligations, was complex and differentiated.(boyun eğme ve hiyerarşik ilişkiler üzerine kurulu militan(saldırgan) toplum basit ve farklılaşmamış; sözleşmeye dayalı yükümlülükler ve gönüllülük üzerine kurulu endüstriyel toplumsa karmaşık ve farklılaşmıştı.) Spencer's described society as “social organism” was evolving to more complex according to universal evolutional law. Industrial society was the direct descendant of the ideal society developed in “Social Statics”.
Part Three : Human Nature
As a researcher, Spencer believed in evolution. Everything can be explained in
evolution. In this process, onrganisms are develop from simple to more complex level by
level as natural selection. The man who said that “the survival of the fittest” was Spencer,
not Darwin. What we are is determined by what we inherit and circumstances of our
enviroment . For Spencer, our mind and body developing paralelly and our central nervous
system and brain development was mechanisitic. Inclination between individuals in races
was reflected in the charesteristic of rational self-interest. During the evolution period,
social life is the most important role on individualizm with rising of socialization.
