Liberalism: Hervert Spencer
The most extreme reflection of nineteenth-century individualism is to be found in the encyclopedic system of Herbert Spencer (1820-1903). Both his paternal and maternal ancestors were of a long English and French nonconformists, dissenters and rebels, and Spencer traces in his “Autobiography” his “conspicuous disregard” of political, religious, and social authority to the tradition of independence and dissent so long cherished by his family. Spencer’s education was informal, unconventional, and highly deficient in the more traditional studies of literature and history. His father encouraged his interest in the science and tecnology, and Spencer became an ...
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which was not much modified in his writings in the following sixty years. Spencer expresses in The Proper Sphere of Government his belief that “everything in nature has its laws,” organic as well as inorganic matter. Man is subject to laws bot in his physical and spiritual essence, and “as with man individually, so with man socially.” Concerning the evils of society, Spencer postulates a “self-adjusting principle” under which evils rectify themselves, provided that no one interferes with the inherent law of society.
In discussing the functions of the state, Spencer is concerned with what the state should not do, rather than what it should do. Maintenance of order and administration of justice are the only two proper realms of government activity, and their purpose is “simply to defend the natural rights of man to protect person and property.” The state has no business to promote religion, regulate trade and commerce, encourage ...
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of the military state refers to an early stage of society, it anticipates with remarkable accuracy the developments of the twentieth century. In the military state, Spencer says, the military chief is likely to be the political leader, and the economic activities of the industrial classes are oriented to the military needs of the state. There is massive corporation in a military state, but it is enforced and involuntary. Because the security of the state is the primary objective of all public actions.
As the military state expands its territory and achieves stability over a long period of time, it gradually evolves into the industrial type of state and society. The way of life in ...
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