The Man versus the State: Great Essays

· Great Essays Kirja 6 · VM eBooks
E-kirja
350
sivuja

Tietoa tästä e-kirjasta

The Westminster Review for April, 1860, contained an article entitled “Parliamentary Reform: the Dangers and the Safeguards.” In that article I ventured to predict some results of political changes then proposed.

Reduced to its simplest expression, the thesis maintained was that, unless due precautions were taken, increase of freedom in form would be followed by decrease of freedom in fact. Nothing has occurred to alter the belief I then expressed. The drift of legislation since that time has been of the kind anticipated. Dictatorial measures, rapidly multiplied, have tended continually to narrow the liberties of individuals; and have done this in a double way. Regulations have been made in yearly-growing numbers, restraining the citizen in directions where his actions were previously unchecked, and compelling actions which previously he might perform or not as he liked; and at the same time heavier public burdens, chiefly local, have further restricted his freedom, by lessening that portion of his earnings which he can spend as he pleases, and augmenting the portion taken from him to be spent as public agents please.

Tietoja kirjoittajasta

Herbert Spencer (27 April 1820 – 8 December 1903) was an English philosopher, biologist, anthropologist, sociologist, and prominent classical liberal political theorist of the Victorian era.

Spencer developed an all-embracing conception of evolution as the progressive development of the physical world, biological organisms, the human mind, and human culture and societies. He was "an enthusiastic exponent of evolution" and even "wrote about evolution before Darwin did." As a polymath, he contributed to a wide range of subjects, including ethics, religion, anthropology, economics, political theory, philosophy, literature, astronomy, biology, sociology, and psychology. During his lifetime he achieved tremendous authority, mainly in English-speaking academia. "The only other English philosopher to have achieved anything like such widespread popularity was Bertrand Russell, and that was in the 20th century." Spencer was "the single most famous European intellectual in the closing decades of the nineteenth century" but his influence declined sharply after 1900: "Who now reads Spencer?" asked Talcott Parsons in 1937.

Spencer is best known for the expression "survival of the fittest", which he coined in Principles of Biology (1864), after reading Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species. This term strongly suggests natural selection, yet as Spencer extended evolution into realms of sociology and ethics, he also made use of Lamarckism.

Arvioi tämä e-kirja

Kerro meille mielipiteesi.

Tietoa lukemisesta

Älypuhelimet ja tabletit
Asenna Google Play Kirjat ‑sovellus Androidille tai iPadille/iPhonelle. Se synkronoituu automaattisesti tilisi kanssa, jolloin voit lukea online- tai offline-tilassa missä tahansa oletkin.
Kannettavat ja pöytätietokoneet
Voit kuunnella Google Playsta ostettuja äänikirjoja tietokoneesi selaimella.
Lukulaitteet ja muut laitteet
Jos haluat lukea kirjoja sähköisellä lukulaitteella, esim. Kobo-lukulaitteella, sinun täytyy ladata tiedosto ja siirtää se laitteellesi. Siirrä tiedostoja tuettuihin lukulaitteisiin seuraamalla ohjekeskuksen ohjeita.