Social Statics

Author: Herbert Spencer
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-10-14
Features: Herbert Spencer (1820-1903) was a renowned British sociologist and philosopher, an early proponent of social evolutionism and social organism theory. He proposed the idea of social evolution well before Darwin's On the Origin of Species (1859) was published, believing that evolution is a universal law and that society, like biology, is an organism with many similarities between the two. Therefore, he strongly advocated applying the doctrine of "survival of the fittest" from biology to the social realm. His ideas had a significant impact on the development of sociology in various countries. As early as 1902, Yan Fu introduced his major work The Study of Sociology to China under the title A Treatise on Sociology. The Study of Sociology is one of Spencer's academic works and a key study of his social and political theories. As the author himself stated, this work "contains many ideas and seeds of thought that have developed considerably since 1850." Therefore, to study Spencer's thought, this book is essential. The book was published in December 1850. In 1890, the author, considering the changes in his own academic views and objective circumstances, made cuts, compressions, and some textual revisions to the entire work.