Rick Rylance
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198122838
- eISBN:
- 9780191671555
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198122838.003.0008
- Subject:
- Literature, 19th-century and Victorian Literature
Of all the shifts in psychological opinion in the period covered by this book, probably the most far-reaching was the remodeling of it in the light of evolutionary theories. The evolutionary paradigm ...
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Of all the shifts in psychological opinion in the period covered by this book, probably the most far-reaching was the remodeling of it in the light of evolutionary theories. The evolutionary paradigm placed the mind in the general analysis of nature and the biological functions. This chapter examines the development of ‘materialist’, evolutionary psychological theory in the work of one of its leading writers, Herbert Spencer, in detail and in context. Spencer's new psychology, launched in 1855, was portrayed by both radicals and conservatives as marking a fresh and strikingly original turn in the development of psychological theory. The first section describes the changes in models of the mind in the second half of the nineteenth century. The second section discusses Spencer's psychology from associationism to evolutionary theory. The third examines the varying responses to psychological theory. The last section discusses epistemology and evolutionary psychology.Less
Of all the shifts in psychological opinion in the period covered by this book, probably the most far-reaching was the remodeling of it in the light of evolutionary theories. The evolutionary paradigm placed the mind in the general analysis of nature and the biological functions. This chapter examines the development of ‘materialist’, evolutionary psychological theory in the work of one of its leading writers, Herbert Spencer, in detail and in context. Spencer's new psychology, launched in 1855, was portrayed by both radicals and conservatives as marking a fresh and strikingly original turn in the development of psychological theory. The first section describes the changes in models of the mind in the second half of the nineteenth century. The second section discusses Spencer's psychology from associationism to evolutionary theory. The third examines the varying responses to psychological theory. The last section discusses epistemology and evolutionary psychology.
James Meadowcroft
- Published in print:
- 1995
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198206019
- eISBN:
- 9780191676918
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198206019.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History, History of Ideas
This book is concerned with the way in which the concept of the state was invoked in British political argument between 1880 and 1914. Its central claim is that the decades bracketing the turn of the ...
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This book is concerned with the way in which the concept of the state was invoked in British political argument between 1880 and 1914. Its central claim is that the decades bracketing the turn of the century witnessed a significant change in the prevailing terms of British political discourse — that the concept of the state, hitherto a relative stranger to British debate, emerged as a key component of the idiom in which critical reflection on politics was cast. The book surveys the ways in which the state was understood in this period, and also presents a detailed analysis of the conceptions of the state in the work of six prominent theorists: Herbert Spencer, Hugh Cecil, Bernard Bosanquet, L. T. Hobhouse, J. A. Hobson, and Ramsay MacDonald.Less
This book is concerned with the way in which the concept of the state was invoked in British political argument between 1880 and 1914. Its central claim is that the decades bracketing the turn of the century witnessed a significant change in the prevailing terms of British political discourse — that the concept of the state, hitherto a relative stranger to British debate, emerged as a key component of the idiom in which critical reflection on politics was cast. The book surveys the ways in which the state was understood in this period, and also presents a detailed analysis of the conceptions of the state in the work of six prominent theorists: Herbert Spencer, Hugh Cecil, Bernard Bosanquet, L. T. Hobhouse, J. A. Hobson, and Ramsay MacDonald.
Thomas Dixon
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197264263
- eISBN:
- 9780191734816
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197264263.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, History of Ideas
Aside from Darwin, the writer most commonly associated with evolution in Victorian Britain, and the country’s most famous living philosopher, was the individualistic Herbert Spencer. Spencer ...
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Aside from Darwin, the writer most commonly associated with evolution in Victorian Britain, and the country’s most famous living philosopher, was the individualistic Herbert Spencer. Spencer certainly seems an unlikely altruist, but it was the influence of his writings, including his Data of Ethics (1879), that did most to guarantee the wider dissemination of the language of altruism from the 1870s onwards. This chapter explains what altruism meant to Spencer; how he used it in his attacks on the brutality and hypocrisy of British imperialism; how it led many readers, to his great frustration, to identify him as a disciple of Comte; and how he finally dropped the term as it came to be associated with socialism. Spencer’s combination of altruism abroad and egoism at home made sense as two sides of his resistance to political and ideological movements which he thought represented the ‘New Toryism’.Less
Aside from Darwin, the writer most commonly associated with evolution in Victorian Britain, and the country’s most famous living philosopher, was the individualistic Herbert Spencer. Spencer certainly seems an unlikely altruist, but it was the influence of his writings, including his Data of Ethics (1879), that did most to guarantee the wider dissemination of the language of altruism from the 1870s onwards. This chapter explains what altruism meant to Spencer; how he used it in his attacks on the brutality and hypocrisy of British imperialism; how it led many readers, to his great frustration, to identify him as a disciple of Comte; and how he finally dropped the term as it came to be associated with socialism. Spencer’s combination of altruism abroad and egoism at home made sense as two sides of his resistance to political and ideological movements which he thought represented the ‘New Toryism’.
Casper Sylvest
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- July 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780719079092
- eISBN:
- 9781781703151
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719079092.003.0004
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
This chapter explores the internationalist ideology that emerged from the political and social thought of Herbert Spencer and Henry Sidgwick. A discussion of the role of philosophical idealists, ...
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This chapter explores the internationalist ideology that emerged from the political and social thought of Herbert Spencer and Henry Sidgwick. A discussion of the role of philosophical idealists, including Thomas Hill Green, David George Ritchie and Bernard Bosanquet, is presented. Green influenced a new generation of liberals and internationalists in important ways. Ritchie foresaw how the struggle among states would be tamed through the development of ethics and the widening of communities. Spencer's ideas about international politics fall clearly within the bounds of liberal internationalism. It is Sidgwick's scepticism towards dogmatism in religious affairs that has coloured his image. The Elements of Politics and The Development of European Polity were consistent in their projection and pursuit of basic internationalist ideals. The analysis points to the concomitant diversity and strength of internationalism as a political ideology among successful liberal philosophers and their audiences in the late nineteenth century.Less
This chapter explores the internationalist ideology that emerged from the political and social thought of Herbert Spencer and Henry Sidgwick. A discussion of the role of philosophical idealists, including Thomas Hill Green, David George Ritchie and Bernard Bosanquet, is presented. Green influenced a new generation of liberals and internationalists in important ways. Ritchie foresaw how the struggle among states would be tamed through the development of ethics and the widening of communities. Spencer's ideas about international politics fall clearly within the bounds of liberal internationalism. It is Sidgwick's scepticism towards dogmatism in religious affairs that has coloured his image. The Elements of Politics and The Development of European Polity were consistent in their projection and pursuit of basic internationalist ideals. The analysis points to the concomitant diversity and strength of internationalism as a political ideology among successful liberal philosophers and their audiences in the late nineteenth century.
Piers J. Hale
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- January 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780226108490
- eISBN:
- 9780226108520
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226108520.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
Following recent scholarship it is clear that Herbert Spencer was no social Darwinist, rather his Lamarckian politics reflected an appreciation of the radicalism of William Godwin and Erasmus Darwin. ...
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Following recent scholarship it is clear that Herbert Spencer was no social Darwinist, rather his Lamarckian politics reflected an appreciation of the radicalism of William Godwin and Erasmus Darwin. Unlike many Whigs Spencer was ambivalent about Malthus's claim that population would outstrip resources. In his “Theory of Population” Spencer explained that the struggle for existence would drive the development of human intelligence as people exercised and thereby increased their mental capacities. In doing so they would deplete the neurine in their brains. Citing respected contemporary physiologists Spencer believed neurine was the same chemical substance that fuelled sexual desire, thus solving the Malthusian dilemma. In Social Statics and other early works Spencer articulated limited government as the basis of a progressive evolution towards a utopian socialist future, it was only later, when contemporary socialists embraced statist solutions to social problems, that he drew back from these conclusions.Less
Following recent scholarship it is clear that Herbert Spencer was no social Darwinist, rather his Lamarckian politics reflected an appreciation of the radicalism of William Godwin and Erasmus Darwin. Unlike many Whigs Spencer was ambivalent about Malthus's claim that population would outstrip resources. In his “Theory of Population” Spencer explained that the struggle for existence would drive the development of human intelligence as people exercised and thereby increased their mental capacities. In doing so they would deplete the neurine in their brains. Citing respected contemporary physiologists Spencer believed neurine was the same chemical substance that fuelled sexual desire, thus solving the Malthusian dilemma. In Social Statics and other early works Spencer articulated limited government as the basis of a progressive evolution towards a utopian socialist future, it was only later, when contemporary socialists embraced statist solutions to social problems, that he drew back from these conclusions.
JAMES MEADOWCROFT
- Published in print:
- 1995
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198206019
- eISBN:
- 9780191676918
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198206019.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History, History of Ideas
Herbert Spencer (1820–1903) and Hugh Cecil (1869–1956) each made significant contributions to arguments about the state during the period with which this book is concerned. There are significant ...
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Herbert Spencer (1820–1903) and Hugh Cecil (1869–1956) each made significant contributions to arguments about the state during the period with which this book is concerned. There are significant parallels between these two thinkers' approaches to the state. Both men opposed government interference with economic processes, vocally supporting ‘freedom of contract’ and free trade. Both men considered disturbance of the existing (historically and market-determined) distribution of wealth as immoral, rejecting redistributive taxation and denying all citizenship-based claims to state financial assistance. They also resisted movement towards adult suffrage and formally invoked the idea of political ‘justice’ to delimit the legitimate sphere of state action. This chapter compares the views of Spencer and Cecil concerning the state and politics in Britain and its relation to religion, society, militancy, industrialism, justice, freedom, and rights.Less
Herbert Spencer (1820–1903) and Hugh Cecil (1869–1956) each made significant contributions to arguments about the state during the period with which this book is concerned. There are significant parallels between these two thinkers' approaches to the state. Both men opposed government interference with economic processes, vocally supporting ‘freedom of contract’ and free trade. Both men considered disturbance of the existing (historically and market-determined) distribution of wealth as immoral, rejecting redistributive taxation and denying all citizenship-based claims to state financial assistance. They also resisted movement towards adult suffrage and formally invoked the idea of political ‘justice’ to delimit the legitimate sphere of state action. This chapter compares the views of Spencer and Cecil concerning the state and politics in Britain and its relation to religion, society, militancy, industrialism, justice, freedom, and rights.
Hans Joas and Wolfgang Knöbl
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691150840
- eISBN:
- 9781400844746
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691150840.003.0003
- Subject:
- Sociology, Social Theory
This chapter examines how the progressive optimism nourished by liberal doctrines gradually began to take hold and how sociology as a discipline took a particularly wide variety of institutional ...
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This chapter examines how the progressive optimism nourished by liberal doctrines gradually began to take hold and how sociology as a discipline took a particularly wide variety of institutional forms and featured very different theoretical and research programs. Toward the end of the eighteenth and during the first third of the nineteenth centuries, utilitarians such as Jeremy Bentham and later James and John Stuart Mill were already singing the praises of free trade and its peace-promoting effects. This laid the foundations for at least one strand of liberal thought in the nineteenth century, on which early “sociologists” such as Auguste Comte and Herbert Spencer could then build. Despite the hegemonic status of liberal doctrines, other views were always present beneath the surface. This includes Marxism, which in many respects embraced the legacy of liberalism.Less
This chapter examines how the progressive optimism nourished by liberal doctrines gradually began to take hold and how sociology as a discipline took a particularly wide variety of institutional forms and featured very different theoretical and research programs. Toward the end of the eighteenth and during the first third of the nineteenth centuries, utilitarians such as Jeremy Bentham and later James and John Stuart Mill were already singing the praises of free trade and its peace-promoting effects. This laid the foundations for at least one strand of liberal thought in the nineteenth century, on which early “sociologists” such as Auguste Comte and Herbert Spencer could then build. Despite the hegemonic status of liberal doctrines, other views were always present beneath the surface. This includes Marxism, which in many respects embraced the legacy of liberalism.
Robin Small
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- July 2005
- ISBN:
- 9780199278077
- eISBN:
- 9780191602702
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199278075.003.0010
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
In On the Genealogy of Morals (1887), Nietzsche criticizes the ideas of the ‘English psychologists’—in fact, the account of the moral sense he had earlier borrowed from Rée—and elaborates his own ...
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In On the Genealogy of Morals (1887), Nietzsche criticizes the ideas of the ‘English psychologists’—in fact, the account of the moral sense he had earlier borrowed from Rée—and elaborates his own alternative. In many ways, this is the naturalistic approach taken further, not just explaining valuation but placing values themselves in question, and opening up the possibility of their re-valuation through a new conception of the life process. This chapter presents Nietzsche’s rehabilitation of egoism through his engagement with Herbert Spencer’s ethics, arguing that his hostility is largely due to an unacknowledged amount of common ground.Less
In On the Genealogy of Morals (1887), Nietzsche criticizes the ideas of the ‘English psychologists’—in fact, the account of the moral sense he had earlier borrowed from Rée—and elaborates his own alternative. In many ways, this is the naturalistic approach taken further, not just explaining valuation but placing values themselves in question, and opening up the possibility of their re-valuation through a new conception of the life process. This chapter presents Nietzsche’s rehabilitation of egoism through his engagement with Herbert Spencer’s ethics, arguing that his hostility is largely due to an unacknowledged amount of common ground.
John Offer
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9781861345318
- eISBN:
- 9781447301455
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781861345318.003.0003
- Subject:
- Social Work, Social Policy
This chapter addresses both the arguments of Herbert Spencer against welfare provisions emanating from the state and his support for ‘private beneficence’, for charities and for the expanded ...
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This chapter addresses both the arguments of Herbert Spencer against welfare provisions emanating from the state and his support for ‘private beneficence’, for charities and for the expanded administration of civil justice. It also argues that Spencer's work is not only significant in the history of social theory and welfare but is intrinsic to the process of interpreting present-day debates and research priorities in welfare studies. In addition, it investigates what Spencer's liberal vision of the future for the well-being of individuals amounted to, and the nature of the social and individual life and the political structures and functions that he believed to be the necessary pre-conditions for it. Private beneficence allows social evolution to progress. Spencer's ideas on welfare lacked powerful friends, a situation not helped by his own diffidence towards the application of his ideas.Less
This chapter addresses both the arguments of Herbert Spencer against welfare provisions emanating from the state and his support for ‘private beneficence’, for charities and for the expanded administration of civil justice. It also argues that Spencer's work is not only significant in the history of social theory and welfare but is intrinsic to the process of interpreting present-day debates and research priorities in welfare studies. In addition, it investigates what Spencer's liberal vision of the future for the well-being of individuals amounted to, and the nature of the social and individual life and the political structures and functions that he believed to be the necessary pre-conditions for it. Private beneficence allows social evolution to progress. Spencer's ideas on welfare lacked powerful friends, a situation not helped by his own diffidence towards the application of his ideas.
Ian Small
- Published in print:
- 1991
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198122418
- eISBN:
- 9780191671418
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198122418.003.0003
- Subject:
- Literature, 19th-century and Victorian Literature, Criticism/Theory
This chapter discusses how psychology is a newly defined and recently professionalized discipline of knowledge that seemed in all its epistemological assumptions to endorse at an abstract level the ...
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This chapter discusses how psychology is a newly defined and recently professionalized discipline of knowledge that seemed in all its epistemological assumptions to endorse at an abstract level the whole notion of individualism. It notes that psychology defined its object of study, the mind, in terms of individual perceptions, impressions, and desires. It evaluates the nature of the relationship which aesthetics as a discipline was thought to have with other disciplines of knowledge; the most important of these was its relationship with the new ‘science’ of psychology. It also talks about Charles Darwin and Herbert Spencer and their desire to absolutely connect the domains of psychology and biology.Less
This chapter discusses how psychology is a newly defined and recently professionalized discipline of knowledge that seemed in all its epistemological assumptions to endorse at an abstract level the whole notion of individualism. It notes that psychology defined its object of study, the mind, in terms of individual perceptions, impressions, and desires. It evaluates the nature of the relationship which aesthetics as a discipline was thought to have with other disciplines of knowledge; the most important of these was its relationship with the new ‘science’ of psychology. It also talks about Charles Darwin and Herbert Spencer and their desire to absolutely connect the domains of psychology and biology.
Thomas Dixon
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197264263
- eISBN:
- 9780191734816
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197264263.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, History of Ideas
‘Altruism’ was coined by the French sociologist Auguste Comte in the early 1850s as a theoretical term in his ‘cerebral theory’ and as the central ideal of his atheistic ‘Religion of Humanity’. This ...
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‘Altruism’ was coined by the French sociologist Auguste Comte in the early 1850s as a theoretical term in his ‘cerebral theory’ and as the central ideal of his atheistic ‘Religion of Humanity’. This book traces this new language of ‘altruism’ as it spread through British culture between the 1850s and the 1900s, and in doing so provides a portrait of Victorian moral thought. Drawing attention to the importance of Comtean positivism in setting the agenda for debates about science and religion, this volume challenges received ideas about both Charles Darwin and Herbert Spencer as moral philosophers. Darwin saw sympathy and love, not only selfishness and competition, throughout the natural world. Spencer was the instigator of an Anti-Aggression League and an advocate of greater altruism in Britain’s dealings with the ‘lower races’. The book also sheds light on the rise of popular socialism in the 1880s, on the creation of the idealist ‘altruist’ in novels of the 1890s, and on the individualistic philosophies of Friedrich Nietzsche, Oscar Wilde, and G. E. Moore—authors considered by some to be representative of fin de siècle ‘egomania’. This wide-ranging study in the history of ideas is relevant to contemporary debates about altruism, evolution, religion, and ethics.Less
‘Altruism’ was coined by the French sociologist Auguste Comte in the early 1850s as a theoretical term in his ‘cerebral theory’ and as the central ideal of his atheistic ‘Religion of Humanity’. This book traces this new language of ‘altruism’ as it spread through British culture between the 1850s and the 1900s, and in doing so provides a portrait of Victorian moral thought. Drawing attention to the importance of Comtean positivism in setting the agenda for debates about science and religion, this volume challenges received ideas about both Charles Darwin and Herbert Spencer as moral philosophers. Darwin saw sympathy and love, not only selfishness and competition, throughout the natural world. Spencer was the instigator of an Anti-Aggression League and an advocate of greater altruism in Britain’s dealings with the ‘lower races’. The book also sheds light on the rise of popular socialism in the 1880s, on the creation of the idealist ‘altruist’ in novels of the 1890s, and on the individualistic philosophies of Friedrich Nietzsche, Oscar Wilde, and G. E. Moore—authors considered by some to be representative of fin de siècle ‘egomania’. This wide-ranging study in the history of ideas is relevant to contemporary debates about altruism, evolution, religion, and ethics.
Paul Laity
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199248353
- eISBN:
- 9780191714672
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199248353.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History
This book covers the late Victorian and Edwardian peace movement, the campaigns of which made a significant impact on political debate, especially during the Franco-Prussian War (1870–1871), the ...
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This book covers the late Victorian and Edwardian peace movement, the campaigns of which made a significant impact on political debate, especially during the Franco-Prussian War (1870–1871), the Bulgarian Atrocities campaign (1876–1878), Britain's conflict with Egypt (1882), the South African War (1899–1902), and the intensifying international crisis before 1914. The movement's activists included Richard Cobden, Herbert Spencer, Keir Hardie, J. A. Hobson, and Norman Angell. Among the first to benefit from the opening of the Peace Society Archive, the book focuses on the specialised associations at the heart of the peace movement. It identifies the existence of different programmes for the achievement of a just, permanent peace, and offers a new interpretation of the reaction of peace campaigners to war in 1914.Less
This book covers the late Victorian and Edwardian peace movement, the campaigns of which made a significant impact on political debate, especially during the Franco-Prussian War (1870–1871), the Bulgarian Atrocities campaign (1876–1878), Britain's conflict with Egypt (1882), the South African War (1899–1902), and the intensifying international crisis before 1914. The movement's activists included Richard Cobden, Herbert Spencer, Keir Hardie, J. A. Hobson, and Norman Angell. Among the first to benefit from the opening of the Peace Society Archive, the book focuses on the specialised associations at the heart of the peace movement. It identifies the existence of different programmes for the achievement of a just, permanent peace, and offers a new interpretation of the reaction of peace campaigners to war in 1914.
Casper Sylvest
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- July 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780719079092
- eISBN:
- 9781781703151
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719079092.003.0006
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
This chapter shows how ideas and arguments emerging within the legal, philosophical and historical languages of internationalism were exploited by a new and younger generation. Lassa Oppenheim ...
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This chapter shows how ideas and arguments emerging within the legal, philosophical and historical languages of internationalism were exploited by a new and younger generation. Lassa Oppenheim deployed the language of legal evolution to advance a moral internationalist argument. George Edward Moore's cultivation of simple truths, aesthetics and personal experience, and Bertrand Russell's search for an unpolluted rational foundation of philosophical truth, could lead to withdrawal from politics. Leonard Trelawney Hobhouse, John Atkinson Hobson and Norman Angell took on board the brighter dimensions of Herbert Spencer's evolutionary theory and its focus on the international domain. Their writings were infused with the values of Richard Cobden, John Bright and William Ewart Gladstone. George Peabody Gooch is a fitting representative of early twentieth-century liberal internationalists, their debts to a previous generation, as well as the ideological innovation they represented.Less
This chapter shows how ideas and arguments emerging within the legal, philosophical and historical languages of internationalism were exploited by a new and younger generation. Lassa Oppenheim deployed the language of legal evolution to advance a moral internationalist argument. George Edward Moore's cultivation of simple truths, aesthetics and personal experience, and Bertrand Russell's search for an unpolluted rational foundation of philosophical truth, could lead to withdrawal from politics. Leonard Trelawney Hobhouse, John Atkinson Hobson and Norman Angell took on board the brighter dimensions of Herbert Spencer's evolutionary theory and its focus on the international domain. Their writings were infused with the values of Richard Cobden, John Bright and William Ewart Gladstone. George Peabody Gooch is a fitting representative of early twentieth-century liberal internationalists, their debts to a previous generation, as well as the ideological innovation they represented.
Henry Sidgwick
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780198250234
- eISBN:
- 9780191598432
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0198250231.003.0025
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Moral Philosophy
In his discussion of Herbert Spencer's effort to provide a scientific basis for the rules of right conduct, Sidgwick maintains that this species of inquiry does not necessarily establish the ...
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In his discussion of Herbert Spencer's effort to provide a scientific basis for the rules of right conduct, Sidgwick maintains that this species of inquiry does not necessarily establish the authority of the morality of which it explains the existence. Granted, the authority of such a morality Spencer does not attempt to establish, as he confines himself to identifying the origin of current moral concepts, which he regards as defective, one‐sided and destined to give way to a truer morality. It is the authority of this truer morality that Spencer ultimately aims to establish. Sidgwick suggests that Spencer's opposition to Bentham and utilitarianism turns on a misunderstanding: his target should be the pure altruism advocated by Positivists (including Mill on Sidgwick's interpretation), not the sober and guarded altruism of Bentham and the Benthamites.Less
In his discussion of Herbert Spencer's effort to provide a scientific basis for the rules of right conduct, Sidgwick maintains that this species of inquiry does not necessarily establish the authority of the morality of which it explains the existence. Granted, the authority of such a morality Spencer does not attempt to establish, as he confines himself to identifying the origin of current moral concepts, which he regards as defective, one‐sided and destined to give way to a truer morality. It is the authority of this truer morality that Spencer ultimately aims to establish. Sidgwick suggests that Spencer's opposition to Bentham and utilitarianism turns on a misunderstanding: his target should be the pure altruism advocated by Positivists (including Mill on Sidgwick's interpretation), not the sober and guarded altruism of Bentham and the Benthamites.
John Offer
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9781861345318
- eISBN:
- 9781447301455
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781861345318.003.0004
- Subject:
- Social Work, Social Policy
This chapter explores Herbert Spencer's complex interpretation of individuals and social life. It is primarily concerned with how Spencer understood ‘social individuals’ and ‘social life’, and to ...
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This chapter explores Herbert Spencer's complex interpretation of individuals and social life. It is primarily concerned with how Spencer understood ‘social individuals’ and ‘social life’, and to comment in this light on some recent interpretations of Spencer on moral and political ideas. It also tries to show that Spencerian individuals are psychically and socially so constituted as to be only indirectly responsive to moral suasion. David Weinstein's valuable interpretation of Spencer's equal freedom principle and its relationship to the principles of conduct and consequences has been recognised, and his own and Richard Hiskes' comments on beneficence have also been welcomed critically.Less
This chapter explores Herbert Spencer's complex interpretation of individuals and social life. It is primarily concerned with how Spencer understood ‘social individuals’ and ‘social life’, and to comment in this light on some recent interpretations of Spencer on moral and political ideas. It also tries to show that Spencerian individuals are psychically and socially so constituted as to be only indirectly responsive to moral suasion. David Weinstein's valuable interpretation of Spencer's equal freedom principle and its relationship to the principles of conduct and consequences has been recognised, and his own and Richard Hiskes' comments on beneficence have also been welcomed critically.
Snait Gissis
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780226446318
- eISBN:
- 9780226446592
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226446592.003.0007
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
Herbert Spencer’s notions of biological individuality as expounded from the 1850s until the late 1860s are presented. I argue that: 1) Spencer developed a basic epistemological and methodological ...
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Herbert Spencer’s notions of biological individuality as expounded from the 1850s until the late 1860s are presented. I argue that: 1) Spencer developed a basic epistemological and methodological tripartite frame of analysis of living nature, whereby the elements of that frame—"organism", “environment", and their evolving interactions and their evolved effects—are not separable. An organism can therefore never be viewed as a passive receiver of changes; 2) living nature is hierarchically ordered, and the main feature of Spencerian evolution is the growing complexity of interrelations 3) the Spencerian biological individual is the product of evolutionary work; 4) the same applies to Spencerian collectivities. Thus, Spencer’s biological individuals harbor within them plurality. Furthermore, hybrid categories of collective individuals and of collectivities composed of differing individuals are conceptually necessary for Spencer’s arguments. In a concluding section the possible contemporary interest in and relevance of the Spencerian problématique is addressed briefly.Less
Herbert Spencer’s notions of biological individuality as expounded from the 1850s until the late 1860s are presented. I argue that: 1) Spencer developed a basic epistemological and methodological tripartite frame of analysis of living nature, whereby the elements of that frame—"organism", “environment", and their evolving interactions and their evolved effects—are not separable. An organism can therefore never be viewed as a passive receiver of changes; 2) living nature is hierarchically ordered, and the main feature of Spencerian evolution is the growing complexity of interrelations 3) the Spencerian biological individual is the product of evolutionary work; 4) the same applies to Spencerian collectivities. Thus, Spencer’s biological individuals harbor within them plurality. Furthermore, hybrid categories of collective individuals and of collectivities composed of differing individuals are conceptually necessary for Spencer’s arguments. In a concluding section the possible contemporary interest in and relevance of the Spencerian problématique is addressed briefly.
Paul Turner
- Published in print:
- 1990
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198122395
- eISBN:
- 9780191671401
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198122395.003.0015
- Subject:
- Literature, 19th-century and Victorian Literature
This chapter delves into the prose writers, namely: John Keble, Francis William Newman, John Frederick Denison Maurice, Richard Chenevix Trench, William Ewart Gladstone, Samuel Smiles, Herbert ...
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This chapter delves into the prose writers, namely: John Keble, Francis William Newman, John Frederick Denison Maurice, Richard Chenevix Trench, William Ewart Gladstone, Samuel Smiles, Herbert Spencer, Walter Bagehot, Eneas Sweetland Dallas, Leslie Stephen, John Morley, Henry Sidgwick, Francis Herbert Bradley. As Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus) explained, writing verse means more than turning out ‘two hundred lines an hour, while standing on one leg’, and the same applies to prose. So the term ‘prose-writer’ here excludes any who worked, however interestingly or voluminously, in the spirit of M. Jourdain. All the authors mentioned were conscious of their medium and concerned to use it effectively. Some were directly engaged in forms of literary or linguistic criticism. A third type of qualification for inclusion in this chapter has been subject matter broad enough in scope to be called, in Matthew Arnold’s vague but useful phrase, ‘criticism of life’.Less
This chapter delves into the prose writers, namely: John Keble, Francis William Newman, John Frederick Denison Maurice, Richard Chenevix Trench, William Ewart Gladstone, Samuel Smiles, Herbert Spencer, Walter Bagehot, Eneas Sweetland Dallas, Leslie Stephen, John Morley, Henry Sidgwick, Francis Herbert Bradley. As Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus) explained, writing verse means more than turning out ‘two hundred lines an hour, while standing on one leg’, and the same applies to prose. So the term ‘prose-writer’ here excludes any who worked, however interestingly or voluminously, in the spirit of M. Jourdain. All the authors mentioned were conscious of their medium and concerned to use it effectively. Some were directly engaged in forms of literary or linguistic criticism. A third type of qualification for inclusion in this chapter has been subject matter broad enough in scope to be called, in Matthew Arnold’s vague but useful phrase, ‘criticism of life’.
Duncan Bell
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780691138787
- eISBN:
- 9781400881024
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691138787.003.0010
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
This chapter analyzes the overlapping ideas about international society to be found in the political thought of three leading late Victorian liberal thinkers: T. H. Green (1836–82), Herbert Spencer ...
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This chapter analyzes the overlapping ideas about international society to be found in the political thought of three leading late Victorian liberal thinkers: T. H. Green (1836–82), Herbert Spencer (1820–1903), and Henry Sidgwick (1838–1900). In so doing it focuses on what Stefan Collini has labeled the world of the “public moralists”—the world, that is, of influential and well-connected British intellectuals who flourished in the universities, in Parliament, and in the press. Despite their manifold political and philosophical differences, Green, Spencer, and Sidgwick shared and articulated complementary visions of the past, present, and future of international society. This was not simply a happy coincidence of views—it was an understanding of international politics generated from within their distinctive intellectual systems. They simultaneously reflected and contributed to late Victorian liberal thinking about international affairs.Less
This chapter analyzes the overlapping ideas about international society to be found in the political thought of three leading late Victorian liberal thinkers: T. H. Green (1836–82), Herbert Spencer (1820–1903), and Henry Sidgwick (1838–1900). In so doing it focuses on what Stefan Collini has labeled the world of the “public moralists”—the world, that is, of influential and well-connected British intellectuals who flourished in the universities, in Parliament, and in the press. Despite their manifold political and philosophical differences, Green, Spencer, and Sidgwick shared and articulated complementary visions of the past, present, and future of international society. This was not simply a happy coincidence of views—it was an understanding of international politics generated from within their distinctive intellectual systems. They simultaneously reflected and contributed to late Victorian liberal thinking about international affairs.
JAMES MEADOWCROFT
- Published in print:
- 1995
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198206019
- eISBN:
- 9780191676918
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198206019.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History, History of Ideas
The introduction outlines the aims and content of the book. The book explores the notion of ‘the state’ and the place this concept occupied in British political controversy between 1880 and 1914. It ...
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The introduction outlines the aims and content of the book. The book explores the notion of ‘the state’ and the place this concept occupied in British political controversy between 1880 and 1914. It argues that the decades before and after the turn of the century saw a significant change in the prevailing terms of political communication in Britain: it looks at the concept of the state — previously a little known or used concept. It examines a shift in the use and views on this concept, documenting the diverse ways in which the state was invoked in pre-war political argument and analysing the varying conceptions of the state to be found in the work of prominent theorists such as Herbert Spencer, Hugh Cecil, Bernard Bosanquet, L. T. Hobhouse, J. A. Hobson, and J. R. MacDonald.Less
The introduction outlines the aims and content of the book. The book explores the notion of ‘the state’ and the place this concept occupied in British political controversy between 1880 and 1914. It argues that the decades before and after the turn of the century saw a significant change in the prevailing terms of political communication in Britain: it looks at the concept of the state — previously a little known or used concept. It examines a shift in the use and views on this concept, documenting the diverse ways in which the state was invoked in pre-war political argument and analysing the varying conceptions of the state to be found in the work of prominent theorists such as Herbert Spencer, Hugh Cecil, Bernard Bosanquet, L. T. Hobhouse, J. A. Hobson, and J. R. MacDonald.
Daniel Breslau
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- February 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226090948
- eISBN:
- 9780226090962
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226090962.003.0002
- Subject:
- Sociology, Comparative and Historical Sociology
This chapter examines the social sources of Spencerian sociology and the practices of research and discipline-building that it contains. Spencerianism here means the founders' adoption of Herbert ...
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This chapter examines the social sources of Spencerian sociology and the practices of research and discipline-building that it contains. Spencerianism here means the founders' adoption of Herbert Spencer's definition of society, and their adoption of his definition of sociology as the science that takes society as its object. Spencer's society is an integrated whole that is naturally occurring, continuous with the natural world, and subject to transhistorical laws of evolution. Sociology is therefore, by this definition, a holistic, naturalistic, and evolutionary science of society. Notwithstanding their disagreements, some quite radical, on theoretical particulars, the founders unanimously accepted this constitution for their discipline, just as sociologists today, with perhaps slightly less unanimity, would reject it.Less
This chapter examines the social sources of Spencerian sociology and the practices of research and discipline-building that it contains. Spencerianism here means the founders' adoption of Herbert Spencer's definition of society, and their adoption of his definition of sociology as the science that takes society as its object. Spencer's society is an integrated whole that is naturally occurring, continuous with the natural world, and subject to transhistorical laws of evolution. Sociology is therefore, by this definition, a holistic, naturalistic, and evolutionary science of society. Notwithstanding their disagreements, some quite radical, on theoretical particulars, the founders unanimously accepted this constitution for their discipline, just as sociologists today, with perhaps slightly less unanimity, would reject it.
