Herbert Spencer Unlike Comte, who was
strongly infl uenced by the upheavals of the French
Revolution, the British social theorist Herbert
Spencer (1820–1903) was born in a more peaceful
and optimistic period in his country’s history.
Spencer’s major contribution to sociology was an
evolutionary perspective on social order and social
change. Evolutionary theory is “a theory to explain
the mechanisms of organic/social change” (Haines,
1997: 81). According to Spencer’s Th eory of General
Evolution, society, like a biological organism, has
various interdependent parts (such as the family, the
economy, and the government) that work to ensure
the stability and survival of the entire society.
Spencer believed that societies develop through a
process of “struggle” (for existence) and “fi tness” (for
survival), which he referred to as the “survival of
the fi ttest.” Because this phrase is oft en attributed to
Charles Darwin, Spencer’s view of society is known
as social Darwinism—the belief that those species
of animals, including human beings, best adapted
to their environment survive and prosper, whereas
those poorly adapted die out. Spencer equated this
process of natural selection with progress because
only the “fi ttest” members of society would survive
the competition, and the “unfi t” would be fi ltered
out of society.
Critics believe that his ideas are fl awed because
societies are not the same as biological systems;
people are able to create and transform the environment
in which they live. Moreover, the notion of the
survival of the fi ttest can easily be used to justify
class, racial–ethnic, and gender inequalities and to
rationalize the lack of action to eliminate harmful
practices that contribute to such inequalities.