M1: Lec 3

Question 1

What was Herbert Spencer’s solution to the problem of method?

Answer 1

-he was a naturalist

Question 2

What kind of laws did Spencer want to discover?

Answer 2

-laws of co-existence and sequence

Question 3

What methods did Spencer use to discover laws for the problem of method?

Answer 3

• observation
• experiment
• comparative historical method

Question 4

What did Spencer use the comparative historical method for?

Answer 4

-to classify societies

Question 5

How did Spencer classify societies?

Answer 5

• by degree of integration

- by predominant social activity

Question 6

What were the two predominant social activities Spencer observed?

Answer 6

• offense and defense

- sustenance

Question 7

What was an offence and defence society?

Answer 7

• had hostile interactions with neighbouring countries

- militant type of society

Question 8

What was a sustenance type of society?

Answer 8

• had peaceful interactions with neighbouring countries

- industrial type of society

Question 9

What was Spencer’s solution to the problem of change?

Answer 9

-development or evolution

Question 10

What does development mean in biology and sociology?

Answer 10

Biology;
-environment cannot create new potentials
-unfolding of pre-existing inherent potentials
Sociology;
-societies move along a pre-determined path toward a preset goal

Question 11

What does evolution mean in biology and sociology?

Answer 11

Biology;
-a creative process
-environment created new potentials in 2 ways
Sociology;
-no predetermined path or preset goals
-gives casual primacy to environment

Question 12

What are the 2 ways environment creates potential in the biological definition of evolution?

Answer 12

• Use-inheritance; Lamarckism

- Natural selection; Darwinism

Question 13

What assumptions about the nature of change did Spencer possess?

Answer 13

Developmentalism;
-directional (towards a goal)
-irreversible
-deterministic
-retrogression is bad
Evolution;
-relies on environment 
-probabilistic

Question 14

Does Spencer believe in both development and evolution?

Answer 14

Yes;

• uses development to specify course
• uses evolution to specify mechanism

Question 15

How did Spencer describe the course of social change (under the problem of change)?

Answer 15

-Using Von Baerian epigenesis

Question 16

Define Von Baerian epigenesis

Answer 16

• movement from homogeneity of structure to heterogeneity of structure through a process of successive differentiations and integrations
• developmentalism

Question 17

How did Spencer describe the mechanism of social change (under the problem of change)?

Answer 17

• evolutionary

- model of use-inheritance

Question 18

What is the model of use-inheritance?

Answer 18

• differential use and disuse of organs in response to environmental occurrence
• inheritance of these acquired characters
• these cause social change through the changed individuals

Question 19

How do you determine if a mechanism of social change is developmentalism or evolutionary?

Answer 19

• look at the role of the environment and if it creates new potentials;
• yes, evolution
• no, developmentalism

Question 20

Is Spencers view on the problem of agency macro or micro-macro?

Answer 20

Micro-macro linkage

Question 21

Did Spencer see himself as an evolutionary or developmental theorist?

Answer 21

-Evolutionary