Bio: (1820-1903) British sociologist and anthropologist. In addition to Anthony Giddens, Herbert Spencer is the most famous British sociologist. Although Spencer did not have a formal university education in the social sciences and never had any academic position, the breadth, complexity, and attention to detail are remarkable in his work. Spencer began his career as a civil engineer at the London Railway, and later left the job and in 1848 began working as deputy editor of The Economist. From then until the end of his life, Spencer wrote a large number of books and articles in many fields: sociology, anthropology, biology, psychology, political philosophy, and ethics.

One of his most significant endeavors was the engagement of a large number of experts in order to collect historical data for societies that have a written history and ethnographic information about societies without a written history. These data referred to various aspects of social life around the world and history. These data were further classified according to the categories developed by Spencer. The result of this enormous work was the book Descriptive Sociology (1873-1934), which had a total of eight volumes.

Spencer's oeuvre is characterized by two ideas that are most important to him. His scientific works, which dealt with sociology, biology, anthropology, and psychology, were thoroughly marked by an evolutionary approach; while his works on political theory and ethics are aimed at defending the idea of ​​complete freedom, the freedom of the individual from the tyranny of the state and society, and the freedom of the economy from state interventionism and regulation.

                                            Evolutionism

Spencer formulated the universal law of evolution: "Evolution is an integration of matter and concomitant dissipation of motion; during which the matter passes from an indefinite incoherent homogeneity to a definite coherent heterogeneity; and during which the retained motion undergoes a parallel transformation." ( Spencer, 1862). Spencer applied this view of evolution to all phenomena, both inorganic and biological species, but also to the development of human society, which he calls „super-organic“ matter. Spencer developed his theory of biological evolution independently, even before Charles Darwin did so.

Spencer applied the rules of universal evolution to the development of society and culture, and he drew a parallel between biological and social evolution. Spencer divides the factors that influence the evolution of all societies into primary and secondary factors (conditions). The primary factors may be external, therefore, outside the society itself, and these are the configuration of the land and the surrounding flora and fauna in the territory in which a society lives. Internal primary factors (factors within society itself) are the physical characteristics of individuals (strength, endurance), as well as the mental characteristics of individuals - their emotional character, intelligence, and way of thinking. Secondary factors of social evolution are diverse: 1) modifications that societies make to their inorganic environment (climate, soil) and the organic environment (flora and fauna); 2) factors resulting from the increase of members of society (a division of labor, increase of heterogeneity, integration, specialization, interdependence, control, etc.); 3) other societies (super-organic environment); 4) factors related to the development of culture (technology, language, science, religion, aesthetics, etc.).

Picture 1. Factors of social evolution.

Spencer believed that every society must achieve three fundamental "functional needs" for their survival and those are: operative - providing the resources necessary for survival; reproduction - the creation of new members; regulatory - coordination and control (through the power and cultural symbols); and distributive - distribution of resources, products, people and information. These functional needs are fulfilled by specialized social structures. Spencer even states that all social structures, whatever needs they fulfill in the larger society, have their own operative, regulatory and distributive needs. The challenges that exist in the environment and within society itself, and which relate to meeting these functional needs in a society, are the most important sources of selection pressures that guide social evolution and influence the creation of new structures.

                                Evolutionary Stages of Society

Spencer made a classification of the evolutionary stages that societies go through, where every stage has a separate level of complexity: 1) simple without head (head means leader of the chief) societies (hunter-gatherers); 2) simple with head societies 3) compound societies (nomadic animal husbandry and horticulture); 3 doubly compound societies (agrarian societies) and 4) trebly compound societies (industrial societies).

Based on data on modern hunter-gatherer tribes, Spencer concluded that there was homogeneity in the original "barbarian" tribes and that all individuals of the same sex performed all functions, with the only gender division of labor. The fear of death among people in these societies was a source of religious beliefs. With the appearance of nomadic tribes, which number over a hundred members, power relations are formed for the first time, because the power of the chief appears, but even then the chief performs all tasks like other members of society. At this level of development, wars with other societies play a particularly important role in social evolution, because they can lead to the increase of society by subjugating other societies or they can lead to the complete destruction or subjugation of society. Successful warfare requires the establishment of a central military command by the warlord. In primitive groups, war actions are occasional, so the government is temporary.

When one tribe becomes militarily strong enough to be able to permanently subjugate other tribes, a supreme chief appears, who rules the lower chiefs, and members of the conquered tribes work as slave labor for members of the conquering tribe. With the numerical and territorial increase of the society, the war becomes more frequent and the government becomes permanent, so the temporary military administration transforms into a permanent civilian administration. When complex societies unite with similar complex societies or subdue them militarily, the supreme power of the king, local rulers, and separate classes (military, priestly, and slave) emerges. Spencer calls this level of social evolution a "militant type of society." This type of society is characterized by a great centralization of the administrative system and the development of despotic power. In addition, in militant societies, women and those who perform physical work have very low status, while military work has a high reputation. Social mobility is very small, and the position of an individual is determined by the class in which he or she was born. Economic policy is protectionist, it strives for economic autarchy, while entrepreneurship is limited and constrained.

The transition from the militant to a new type of society mostly depends on favorable external factors, primarily on the possibility of establishing peaceful relations between neighboring countries. When such favorable external conditions are met, and when there is a large enough number of members of society, and the complexity of society is sufficiently pronounced, then there is the economic development of society. This enables the division of labor and the development of trade, which leads to the differentiation and specialization of functions within society. These processes necessarily lead to increased coordination within society. The division of labor, increased coordination between functions, and increased heterogeneity, together lead to increased interdependence of parts and increasing integration of society.

With further economic development, the integration and coordination of society increase even more, because the division of labor in the primary and secondary sectors becomes geographically localized and specialized, which conditions further improvement of communication and traffic systems, all leading to increasing in trade and special trade classes. At this stage of evolution, a new type of society emerges, which Spencer calls the "industrial type of society." The industrial type of society is characterized by voluntary cooperation through trade, decentralization of the administrative system, democratic and independent governing body, and reduction of political control over personal behavior. In the industrial society, the reputation of the military profession is decreasing, along with the reduction of international hostilities, aggression, and crime in the whole society, while work (earning from one's own work) is beginning to be valued more and more.

Increased complexity of the structures of society leads to the creation of specific institutions, each of which has a defined and specialized function. The main social institutions are: family, ceremonial, political, church, professional and economic. Spencer showed that the physical and social environment of a society has an impact on the shape of family institutions. Polyandry develops when the physical and biological environment creates a constraint on economic production, so the marriage of one woman to several men prevents excessive demographic growth. In situations when the society is surrounded by other societies with which it is in constant war, polygyny becomes dominant, because it enables the birth of a large number of children and solves the gender disparity caused by the deaths of men in wars. Domestic institutions have a crucial role to play in shaping and regulating the private behavior of individuals. Ceremonial, political, and ecclesiastical institutions, on the other hand, regulate the public behavior of individuals. If the pace is social evolution is slow enough, over time these institutions become sufficiently specialized and coherent, very rigid and resistant to change, even in moments when external circumstances affect their change.

Spencer views the evolution of both societies and cultures as a spontaneous process. The evolution of a system is a random consequence of the interaction of that system with its own environment, as well as the processes that take place within the system itself. This process of evolution is spontaneous and there are uncertainties in its entire course, that is, the evolution of a system does not follow any predetermined deterministic flow. Dissolution is the opposite of evolution. In developed societies, dissolution occurs either due to an attack by another state or due to internal processes. Revolts and revolutions within society lead to a decline in political and economic integration and coordination and this leads to the dissolution of society.

Spencer believed that class-related economic differences could only be justified as long as the whole economic system functioned in such a way as to efficiently supply consumers and that when it ceased to operate in such a way, it should be replaced with a more efficient system. Similarly, he justified the differences in political power between those who have power and those who do not. Differences in political power are justified only when the minority that governs makes decisions that benefit the majority of society. He viewed the rentier class of landowners as parasitic, and their debauched life spent in leisure as immoral.

                                      Spencers Liberalism

In the book The Man Versus the State (1884) Spencer expresses his belief that society exists to achieve the well-being of its members, and therefore the state cannot have separate imperatives that exceed the interests of individuals who live in it. His concept of justice is a state in which the individual rights of people have absolute priority, that is when people are completely free to regulate their own activities and seek happiness, as long as they do not diminish the freedom of other individuals to seek happiness. The freedom of every human being is complete, and it is limited only when it violates the freedom of another person. The goal of democracy should be to achieve equal freedom for all, so the government and the parliament should have a very limited role, that is: to act to ensure equal freedom for all; to ensure the fulfillment of treaty obligations; to prevent crime; and to provide military defense from other states. People's self-government should be maximally developed until it enters the domain of the prerogatives of the administrative system.

Spencer was a great opponent of British imperialism, and he was a supporter of peaceful relations between states. He also advocated complete economic freedoms and the absence of state intervention in the economy, so he was a great opponent, not only of socialism, but also of all forms of social benefits, charities, and state institutions (schools, museums, etc.) that are financed through taxes, and which are not necessary for the functioning of the state.

                         Epistemology and Sociological Research

Spencer believed that philosophy and science are separated by the fact that science has a higher level of generality. He believed that there is no essential difference between natural and social sciences because both sets of sciences respect the same logical structure. The goal of both is a causal explanation. Both types of science use observations or experiments to confirm or refute hypotheses. Causal relationships can be established only by the systematic study of empirically observable phenomena, and by rejecting or confirming hypotheses following empirical evidence. However, sociology as a science encounters three, specific to it, problems.

The first problem refers to Spencer's position that the progress of sociology is prevented by its subject itself (society), because social phenomena are very widely distributed, both in time and space, which makes it difficult to obtain data. Another problem stems from the fact that the emotions and values ​​of the sociologist always influence his approach to social phenomena. That is why it is impossible to be completely objective and impartial, so sociologists tend to look only for evidence that speaks in favor of their preconceptions. Spencer sees the third difficulty in sociological research in the fact that a sociologist studies a society, while at the same time, he is a member of that society. The positions and functions (nationality, class, religious affiliation, etc.) that a sociologist has in society, inevitably affect his values ​​and emotions.

Spencer developed the rules of the sociological method that were supposed to create procedures by which to overcome these three epistemological problems of sociology. To overcome these problems, sociologists need to train their minds to think analytically, synthetically, and causally. The best way to train the mind in this way is to study biology and psychology. The use of the comparative method is the best procedure for overcoming all three problems of sociology because this method is the best for setting up inductive generalizations and hypotheses that can be tested. For Spencer, another important method is deduction, which is the verification of specific laws from simpler and more general laws, and he considered the law of evolution to be the most important such general law.

Main works

On The Proper Sphere of Government (1843);

Social Statics or  The Conditions Essential to Human Happiness Specified, and the First of Them Developed (1851);

Principles of Psychology, 2 vols. (1855);

Education (1861);

First Principles (1862);

Principles of Biology, 2 vols. (1864-1867);

The Study of Sociology (1873);

Descriptive Sociology, 8 vols. (1873-1934);

Principles of Sociology, 3 vols. (1876-1896);

Principles of Ethics, 2 vols. (1879-1893);

The Man Versus the State (1884);

Various Fragments (1897);

An Autobiography, 2 vols. (1904).