Herbert Spencer: Collected Writings

Herbert Spencer

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN: 9780415565967
• eBook ISBN: 9781000422825
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Filosofía
• Subtopic: Historia y teoría de la filosofía

Herbert Spencer (1820-1903) was regarded by the Victorians as the foremost philosopher of the age, the prophet of evolution at a time when the idea had gripped the popular imagination. Until recently Spencer's posthumous reputation rested almost excusively on his social and political thought, which has itself frequently been subject to serious misrepresentation. But historians of ideas now recognise that an acquaintance with Spencer's thought is essential for the proper understanding of many aspects of Victorian intellectual life, and the present selection is designed to answer this need. It provides a cross-section of Spencer's works from his more popular and approachable essays to a number of the volumes of the Synthetic Philosophy itself. Volume I: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Herbert Spencer.

CHAPTER III.

THE SYNTHETIC PHILOSOPHY-THE PRINCIPLES OF BIOLOGY AND OF PSYCHOLOGY.

I.

EARLY in the course of the composition of the Principles of Psychology in their original form—that is, in 1854—Mr. Spencer had reached that conception of evolution as a universal process which he subsequently worked out in detail in the essay on Progress: Its Laws and Cause. The writing of this article, which first saw the light in the pages of the Westminster Review, in April, 1857, doubtless helped in large measure to systematize and co-ordinate the various ideas that were then fermenting in his mind. It was in the following year, while he was engaged in preparing a long essay in defence of the Nebular Hypothesis, that there dawned ‘upon him the possibility of dealing in a more methodical and connected manner than he had hitherto found practicable with those foundation-principles of evolution to which he had been led by the miscellaneous studies of the past eight or nine years. Instead of treating the diverse phenomena of life and society in disjointed fragments, why should he not consider them after some orderly plan and in their mutual relationships? The germ of thought, thus implanted, forthwith began to develop with extraordinary rapidity, and before long assumed the proportions of an elaborate scheme, in which all orders of concrete phenomena were to fall into their places as illustrations of the fundamental process of evolution. Thus the conception of evolution now presented itself to him as the basis of a system of thought under which was to be generalized the complete history of the knowable universe, and by virtue of which all branches of scientific knowledge were to be unified by affiliation upon the primal laws underlying them all. Such was the origin of the Synthetic Philosophy.

Though a rough sketch of the main outlines of the system as they occurred to him at the time, was mapped out almost immediately, it was not till the following year, 1859—a year otherwise made memorable by the publication of Darwin’s book—that a detailed plan of the various connected works in which these conceptions were to be developed was finally drawn up; and not till March, 1860, that it was given to the small handful of readers interested in such matters in the form of a prospectus. Mr. Spencer’s original intention was to issue the proposed work to subscribers, in periodical parts. This course was persevered in till the publication of the forty-fourth division, in 1876, completing the first volume of the Principles of Sociology. It was then discontinued, and since that date, the publication has been made in volume form only.

The following is a reprint, slightly condensed by the omission of some explanatory matter not now of any special interest, of the programme as originally given to the world.

FIRST PRINCIPLES.

PART I. The Unknowable. Carrying a step further the doctrine put into shape by Hamilton and Mansel; pointing out the various directions in which science leads to the same conclusions; and showing that in this united belief in an Absolute that transcends not only human knowledge but human conception, lies the only possible reconciliation of Science and Religion.

II. Laws of the Knowable. A statement of the ultimate principles discernible throughout all manifestations of the Absolute—those highest generalizations now being disclosed by Science which are severally true not of one class of phenomena but of all classes of phenomena; and which are thus the keys to all classes of phenomena.

[In logical order should here come the application of these First Principles to Inorganic Nature. But this great division it is proposed to pass over: partly because, even without it, the scheme is too extensive; partly because the interpretation of Organic Nature after the proposed method, is of more immediate importance. The second work of the series will therefore be—]

THE PRINCIPLES OF BIOLOGY.

Vol. I

PART I. The Data of Biology. Including those general truths of physics and chemistry with which rational biology must set out.

II. The Inductions of Biology. A statement of the leading generalizations which naturalists, physiologists, and comparative anatomists have established.

III. The Evolution of Life. Concerning the speculation commonly known as the Development Hypothesis—its a priori and a posteriori evidences.

Vol. II

IV. Morphological Development. Pointing out the relatiolis that are everywhere traceable between organic forms and the average of the various forces to which they are subject; and seeking in the cumulative effects of such forces a theory of the forms.

V. Physiological Development. The progressive differentiation of functions similarly traced; and similarly interpreted as consequent upon the exposure of different parts of organisms to different sets of conditions.

VI. The Laws of Multiplication. Generalizations respecting the rates of reproduction of the various classes of plants and animals; followed by an attempt to show the dependence of these variations upon certain necessary causes.

THE PRINCIPLES OF PSYCHOLOGY.

Vol. I

I. The Data of Psychology. Treating of the general connections of mind and life, and their relations to other modes of the Unknowable.

II. The Inductions of Psychology. A digest of such generalizations respecting mental phenomena as have already been empirically established.

III. General Synthesis. A republication, with additional chapters, of the same part in the already published Principles of Psychology.

IV. Special Synthesis. A republication, with extensive revisions and additions, of the same part.

V. Physical Synthesis. An attempt to show the manner in which the succession of states of consciousness conforms to a certain fundamental law of nervous action that follows from the first principles laid down at the outset.

Vol. II

VI. Special Analysis. As at present published, but further elaborated by some additional chapters.

VII. General Analysis. As at present published, with several explanations and additions.

VIII. Corollaries. Consisting in part of a number of derivative principles which form a necessary introduction to sociology.

THE PRINCIPLES OF SOCIOLOGY.

Vol. I

PART I. The Data of Sociology. A statement of the several sets of factors entering into social phenomena—human ideas and feelings considered in their necessary order of evolution; surrounding natural conditions; and those ever-complicating conditions to which society itself gives origin.

II. The Inductions of Sociology. General facts, structural and functional, as gathered from a survey of societies and their changes; in other words, the empirical generalizations that are arrived at by comparing different societies and successive phases of the same society.

III. Political Organization. The evolution of governments, general and local, as determined by natural causes; their several types and metamorphoses; their increasing complexity and specialization; and the progressive limitation of their functions.

Vol. II

IV. Ecclesiastical Organization. Tracing the differentiation of religious government from secular; its successive complications and the multiplication of sects; the growth and continued modification of religious ideas, as caused by advancing knowledge and changing moral character; and the gradual reconciliation of these ideas with the truths of abstract science.

V. Ceremonial Organization. The natural history of that third kind of government which, having a common root with the others, and slowly becoming separate from and supplementary to them, serves to regulate the minor actions of life.*

VI. Industrial Organization. The development of productive and distributive agencies considered, like the foregoing, in its necessary causes; comprehending not only the progressive division of labour and the increasing complexity of each industrial agency, but also the successive forms of industrial government as passing through like phases with political government.†

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• ^* In their published form these three divisions are entitled respectively: Political Institutions; Ecclesiastical Institutions; Ceremonial Institutions; and the last named is properly made to take precedence of the other two. A part on Domestic Institutions is inserted (as Part III) after the Inductions, and this of course disturbs the subsequent numbering of the divisions, as well as, to some extent, the volume arrangement.
  *This division, and the whole of Vol. III, were skipped by Mr. Spencer when he decided at all hazards to push on with the closing volumes on Ethics; and they remain unpublished to-day. Now that the Principles of Ethics is completed, Mr. Spencer will presumably return to those omitted parts and take them up in the order given. I remember a close personal friend and consistent admirer of Mr. Spencer remarking to me some few years ago that she almost wished that he would never undertake to handle some of the subjects specified in the above-outlined third volume, inasmuch as his special preparation could hardly be held to fit him for thorough treatment of such a topic, for instance, as Linguistic Development. Doubtless anything he might write on this question would embroil him with many of the philologists, as his utterances upon mythology have already led him into conflict with Prof. Max Müller and his followers. How far this would be desirable, and what would be his probable chances of success under such circumstances, are matters upon which opinions will differ; but, at all events, it is instructive to notice that, as a friend has pointed out to me, Prof. Max Muller himself has recently been going sadly astray in his philological discussions for want of recognition of the principles of evolution in their application to language. All his learning notwithstanding, such want must necessarily condemn a large part of his investigations to sterility.

Vol. III

VII. Lingual Progress. The evolution of languages regarded as a psychological process determined by social conditions.

VIII. Intellectual Progress. Treated from the same point of view: including the growth of classifications; the evolution of science out of common knowledge; the advance from qualitative to quantitative prevision, from the indefinite to the definite, and from the concrete to the abstract.

IX. Æsthetic Progress. The fine arts similarly dealt with: tracing their gradual differentiation from primitive institutions and from each other; their increasing varieties of development; and their advance in reality of expression and superiority of aim.

X. Moral Progress. Exhibiting the genesis of the slow emotional modifications which human nature undergoes in its adaptation to the social state.

XI. The Consensus. Treating of the necessary interdependence of structures and of functions in each type of society and in the successive phases of social development.

THE PRINCIPLES OF MORALITY.

Vol. I

PART I. The Data of Morality. Generalizations furnished by biology, psychology, and sociology, which underlie a true theory of right living: in other words, the elements of that equilibrium between constitution and conditions of existence, which is at once the moral ideal and the limit towards which we are progressing.

II. The Inductions of Morality. Those empirically established rules of human action which are registered as essential laws by all civilized nations: that is to say, the generalizations of expediency.

III. Personal Morals. The principles of private conduct—physical, intellectual, moral, and religious— that follow from the conditions to complete individual life; or, what is the same thing, those modes of private action which must result from the eventual equilibration of internal desires and external needs.

Vol. II

IV. Justice. The mutual limitations of men’s actions, necessitated by their coexistence as units of a society—limitations, the perfect observance of which constitutes that state of equilibrium forming the goal of political progress.

V. Negative Beneficence. Those secondary limitations, similarly necessitated, which, though less important and not cognizable by law, are yet requisite to prevent mutual destruction of happiness in various indirect ways: in other words, those minor self-restraints, dictated by what may be called passive sympathy.

VI. Positive Beneficence. Comprehending all modes of conduct, dictated by active sympathy, which imply pleasure in giving pleasure—modes of conduct that social adaptation has induced and must render ever more general; and which, in becoming universal, must fill to the full the possible measure of human happiness.

I reproduce this important document here for two reasons: first, because it is convenient for the student of Spencer to have under his eye for reference and guidance such a general programme of the scope and aim of the system taken as a whole, and of the concatenation of its various parts; and, secondly, because it is instructive to notice with what fidelity Mr. Spencer has adhered to his original plan. Any one who takes the trouble to compare the above sketch given here as it stood when it first appeared, more than thirty-three years ago, with the contents of the different volumes and portions of volumes that have been published up to the present time, can hardly fail to be astonished to observe the remarkable correspondence between them—a correspondence which shows how fully and accurately Mr. Spencer must have had the whole vast territory mapped out in his mind, even down to the minutest details, before he sat down to commit himself to the penning of a single line.

II.

The philosophic undertaking thus outlined, and now brought within measurable distance of completion, diffe...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Original Title Page
• Preface
• Table of Contents
• I.—Herbert Spencer: A Biographical Sketch
• II.—Spencer’s Earlier Work—Preparation for the Synthetic Philosophy
• III.—The Synthetic Philosophy
• IV.—The Spencerian Sociology
• V.—The Ethical System of Spencer
• VI.—Religious Aspects of the Spencerian Philosophy
• Appendix.—Chronological List of Mr. Spencer’s Writings