Understanding Herbert Spencer's Sociological Theories

It’s always helpful to look at the man, as well as his sociological theories in order to understand the stance from which he writes. The reasoning being such that in order to look at the ideas and relevancy in which a sociologist presents their arguments, the historical time period and influences they live in as they mature is also extremely important. That being said, Herbert Spencer was born in 1820 at the height of the British industrial revolution. He was not a robust and healthy young man, and saw the loss of his siblings at a young age. In modern day, he might be considered schizophrenic and an opium addict, as well as an insomniac. He was quite eccentric and wore ear-plugs to tune out what went on around him, although he did work as a civil engineer on the railways, which helped him find optimism in life. His book Social Statics was met with great acclaim when it was published in 1851, but his second book Principles of Psychology published in 1855 was highly criticized.

His four main theories are highlighted as growth, differentiation, integration and adaptation. While these concepts are used when describing theories of biological evolution, he believed that they also projected onto a social plane. He looked at evolution as a change from being unstable (homogeneous), to one that was more stable (heterogenous). In fact, it was Spencer who initially coined the term “evolution” and “survival of the fittest” many years before Darwin. Spencer was not taken seriously though due to a lack of what was considered a theoretical system. Although he lived a long life (he died in 1903) his initial optimism about life was replaced in his later years with pessimism about the future of mankind. He is actually buried near Ge...

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...ise and begin to exert authority. Following that situation, there is a split between the regulative and sustaining system within that division. The regulative stage is associated with military and the economic needs of the society are linked to the sustaining systems. There is a continuing differentiation within each of those stages such as: social classes, women, church, etc. Functions of groups within that society also change. Our textbook then goes on to say that Spencer adds a third system, which includes distribution. He again likens it to the human body and see a connection between blood vessels and roads.

As current examples, Egypt and the Arab Spring is a good example of this theory. One might even look at the current situation in the United States and feel that we are ripe for our next differentiation between our regulative and sustaining systems.