Herbert Spencer's Sociological Theories

Vocabulary flashcards covering Herbert Spencer's biography, core sociological concepts, theory of social evolution, organic analogy, and societal classifications.

Herbert Spencer

A British philosopher and sociologist (1820–1903) and major figure in Victorian intellectual life who developed an independent evolutionary framework and authored Social Statics.

Social Statics

Herbert Spencer's first book, published in 1850 (originally titled Demostatics), which presented the core ideas of his sociological theory.

Survival of the Fittest

A phrase introduced by Spencer in his 1864 book Principles of Biology to draw parallels between natural competition and competitive dynamics in society and the economy.

Laissez Faire

The principle of free market advocated by Spencer and popularised by English economists of his time.

Evolution (Spencer's Definition)

An integration of matter and concomitant dissipation of motion; during which the matter passes from an indefinite, incoherent homogeneity to a definite, coherent heterogeneity.

Devolution

Also referred to as dissolution, the process in which motion increases and matter moves toward disintegration.

Superorganic Entity

Spencer's concept of society as an organizational entity over and above the level of the biological organism.

Organic Analogy

The comparison of human society to a biological organism, emphasizing shared traits such as growth in size, structural and functional differentiation, and interdependent parts.

Sustaining System

The social system concerned with internal matters needed to keep society alive, analogous to alimentary organs in organisms and taking the form of industrial and economic structures.

Regulative System

The social system concerned with external matters and conflicts, analogous to the neuromuscular system in organisms and taking the form of government and military structures.

Distributive System

The social system linking sustaining and regulative organs, analogous to blood vessels in biological organisms and taking the form of roads and transportation channels in society.

Simple Societies

Single working entities that are not connected with other entities, characterized by being relatively homogeneous, uncivilized, and uncompounded.

Compound Societies

Societies formed by the union of simple groups through conquest or peaceful merger, featuring increased heterogeneity, division of economic labor, and paramount chiefs.

Doubly Compound Societies

Societies formed by the recompounding of compound groups, displaying advances such as established law emerging from custom, ecclesiastical hierarchies, and developed political states.

Trebly Compound Societies

Great nations or historical empires (such as the Roman Empire and modern states) formed by complex multi-stage compounding and recompounding of social units.

Militant Society

A type of society dominated by the regulative system, compulsory cooperation, despotic government control, rigid status hierarchy, and state ownership of the individual.

Industrial Society

A type of society dominated by the sustaining system, voluntary cooperation, market regulations, democratic representation, economic interdependence, and individual liberty.

Hybrid Societies

Societies that display a combination of militant and industrial characteristics, such as Spencer's depiction of his contemporary society as semi-militant and semi-industrial.