Spencer's Methodology

Spencer realized that studying social phenomena was inherently different from studying natural phenomena; therefore, sociology could not simply imitate the methods used by biologists. Spencer also argued that the psychological method of introspection was ill-suited to studying objective social facts and processes. Sociologists are also faced with the methodological problem of how to keep their own bias in check and gather and report trustworthy data. Spencer advocated a "value free" methodological approach for sociology and cautioned sociologists to be aware of emotional biases that might influence their work, including educational, patriotic, class, political, and theological biases. Spencer was committed to empirical research and employed a comparative-historical methodology in much of his work.

The Evolution of Society

As stated above, Spencer's general theory of social evolution involves the progress of society towards integration, heterogeneity, and definiteness. It also includes a fourth dimension, the increasing coherence of social groups. Social groups, according to Spencer, strive towards greater harmony and cooperation through the division of labour and the state. It is important to note the Spencer does not develop a linear theory of social evolution; he acknowledges that dissolution or no change at all may occur at any given moment. Spencer was a social realist in that he viewed society as an entity in and of itself – thus, the whole of society can live on even if its component parts die. As society grows, it becomes more complex and differentiated. Structures accompany this growth, which function to regulate external concerns like military activities and sustain internal issues like economic activities. Distributing systems eventually emerge that function to help link together regulative and sustaining structures.

Spencer uses his evolutionary theory to trace the movement from simple to compounded societies and from militant to industrial societies. Society evolves from the compounding and recompounding of social groups. It also evolves from military societies dominated by conflict and a coercive regulative system to industrial societies characterized by harmony and a sustaining system of decentralized rule. Spencer thought the society that he was living in was a "hybrid society," exhibiting traits of both military and industrial societies. Although he ultimately hoped society in general would progress towards a state of industry, he recognized that the regression to a militant state was possible.

Ethics and Politics

Spencer argued that individuals were the source of moral law in a given society, but that God ultimately determined good and evil. Evil itself, according to Spencer, was a result of nonadaptation to external conditions, and that in a perfectly evolved society it would disappear. Spencer's politics can be best described as libertarian—he saw a limited role for state intervention in everyday affairs, especially economic activities. Spencer also opposed state-administered charity, education, and even basic services like garbage removal. Following his doctrine of the survival of the fittest, Spencer even opposed private philanthropy. State and private charity both helped to maintain "unhealthy" or unfit members of society, and this stifled present and future society from evolving to perfect harmony.

References

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R. Aron, Main Currents in Sociological Thought (I and II), Transaction Publishers, 1998.

A. Giddens, Capitalism and Modern Social Theory, Cambridge University Press, 1971.

G. Ritzer and D.J. Goodman, Sociological Theory, McGraw-Hill, 2003.

E. Durkheim, The Rules of Sociological Method, Macmillan, 1982.

M. Weber, The Methodology of the Social Sciences, Free Press, 1949.

K. Marx, Capital, Vol. I., Progress Publishers, 1967.

T. Parsons, On Institutions and Social Evolution: Selected Writings (Heritage of Sociology Series), University of Chicago Press, 1985.

R. K. Merton, Social Theory and Social Structure, Free Press, 1970.

A. Giddens and J.H. Turner (Eds.), Social Theory Today, Stanford University Press, 1988.