Sociology. The Theory of Causation by Spencer

NB: We do not resell your papers. Upon ordering, we do an original paper exclusively for you.

NB: All your data is kept safe from the public.

Table of Contents

Introduction
Main body
Conclusion
Reference list

Introduction

Herbert Spencer was a British theorist who was born in the early 18^th century. His father was a religious individual who greatly influenced his life (Elliot 10). Herbert Spencer acquired an education on empirical science and was later introduced to the pre-Darwinian evolution theory. As a young man he had no intellectual interests and therefore decided to acquire a job as a civil engineer during the time when the railway construction industry was at its best (Elliot 15). In the late 1840s and early 1950s, Spencer worked as an editor for a free trade journal known as The Economists. This is the time when his first book was published. In the book, he predicted that human beings at some point would finally fully adapt to the needs of living in a society with a dyeing state.

Main body

The theory of causation that was created by Spencer explains why every event that occurs must have its assignable cause of a comprehensive kind and why there must be is a natural causation everywhere operating (Smith 1). He believes that causation has more influence on humanity than the theory of evolution. He goes further ahead to say that causation is applicable to every aspect of life i.e. human thinking and the resultant actions that follow. Spencers belief that causal laws are operational globally prompted him to try and connect sociology and ethics to scientific principles.

Despite his critics accusation that his social ideologies gave more approval to politics than social principles, the truth is that Spencer viewed sociology as a principle supporting less, rather than more, political ideologies (Smith 126). He explains that, the only political lesson that can be acquired from sociology is the fact that political interference in social life always leads to quite a number of unforeseen negative effects (Smith 127). The causation ideologies as usual have a great influence on this argument. Spencer mentions how political leaders without vision and with little or no understanding of the social causation provide simplistic solutions for complex social issues.

Herbert Spencer was very famous for being involved in social research and to some he was in fact referred to as the father of sociology. His major contribution in social research was made in 1876 when he published the book known as The Principle of Sociology. This book was released in five phases (Holmes 4). In the year 1872 Spencer released the first part of The Study of Sociology. He introduces this article by dealing with an issue that greatly divided sociology. The question was whether sociology can be a true science. Spencer mentions that measuring social facts provides a greater challenge in social concepts as compared to the other sciences. He goes ahead to say that most social facts can not be easily put into clear perceptions (Spencer 8). Unlike the many aspects of physics and chemistry, sociological concepts cannot be measured and evaluated by instruments. With this argument, he believes that the above problem directs us either of the following causes of action: We either put an end to the struggle of making sociology a science or craft a mechanism through which we can measure social events (Spencer 11). Spencer on his side goes with the latter.

Herbert Spencer was in a great way influenced by the times in which he lived. Spencer lived in the days of Charles Darwin and J. Mill who was a very popular philosopher. Spencer moved to live with his uncle Thomas Spencer when he was thirteen. His uncle had a successful career in Cambridge University before changing his occupation to become a parish priest. This is where Herbert Spencer learned some concepts in mathematics, physics, chemistry and some French and Greek grammar. This enabled him to translate some easy texts from Latin (Holmes 1).

Herbert Spencer lived in the time when railway industry was on a boom and therefore acquired a job as a railway engineer. This opened an avenue for him to add some more dimension to his education. The railway construction in that time was regarded by many people as the greatest achievement of the technological industry in of the nineteenth century. Because of the experience he gained working in the railway construction project, he wrote an article about what he thought were the social effects of that industrial development (Holmes 2).

At this point let me mention that there are a lot of personal things about Herbert Spencer that related to sociology. Spencers love for social science became evident when working at the Economist. He spent his free time writing his first book known as the social Statistics. Another notable character of Spencer was that he used to play cards but only paid his losses. He refused to acquire money by gambling since he believed it was a source of pain to other people (Elliot 70). This shows how Spencer was connected to the social world and its values.

During his life time, Spencer refused to accept any honors from the government since he believed that it was not by any chance the role of the government to give praise or blame to anybody. He never wanted to have any thought that by receiving any kind of honor he was in some kind of superior position in the society than others.

Conclusion

Sociology is a social science and an investigative and analysis study that looks towards creating and developing social concepts that can positively impact on our societies (Randall 2). The life and lessons from Herbert Spencer has great teachings that are applicable even to the present life. He gives us a view of politics that can essentially provide results to the complex social problems in our society today.

Reference list

Elliot, Hugh. Herbert Spencer. New York: Read Books, 2008.

Holmes, Brian. Herbert Spencer: The quarterly review of comparative education, vol. 24, no. 3&4, 2002.

Randall, Collins. Four sociological traditions. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994.

Smith, John. Herbert Spencers theory of causation: The journal of libertarian studies, vol. 5, No. 2, 1981.

Spencer, Herbert. The principles of sociology. Transaction Publishers, 2002.

Click Here To Order Now!

Sociology. The Theory of Causation by Spencer

Do you need this or any other assignment done for you from scratch?

We have qualified writers to help you.

We assure you a quality paper that is 100% free from plagiarism and AI.

You can choose either format of your choice ( Apa, Mla, Havard, Chicago, or any other)