Herbert Spencer was one of the leading sociologists of his time and was an influencer of the

structural-functionalist perspective. Learn more about the man who coined the phrase
'survival of the fittest' and understand the positive and negative aspects of social Darwinism.
Spencer and the Theory of Evolution
The idea of something changing naturally isn't a new idea, but one that Charles Darwin
explained with his theory of evolution. Herbert Spencer, an English sociologist, took
Darwin's theory and applied it to how societies change and evolve over time. As a
sociologist, Spencer did not feel the need to correct or improve society, for he felt that
societies were bound to change automatically.


Spencer
took the
theory of
evolution
one step
beyond
biology and
applied it to
say that
societies
were
organisms that progress through changes similar to that of a living species. It was Spencer's
philosophy that societies (like organisms) would begin simple and then progress to a more
complex form. Spencer also found similarities between animal organisms and societies in that
both had three main systems.
The first system is the regulative system. In animals, that would be the central nervous
system. In societies, it would be government that regulates everything. The second system is
the sustaining system. For animals, that's the giving and receiving of nourishment. For
societies, that would be industry - jobs, money, economy and those sorts of things. The third
system would be the distribution system. In animals, that would be the veins and arteries. In
societies, it would be roads, transportation, internet - anything in which information and
goods and services are exchanged.
Survival of the Fittest
It was Herbert Spencer, not Darwin, who coined the phrase 'survival of the fittest' due to the
fact that he believed human behavior was designed in a way that strives for self-preservation.
Darwin later used the term 'survival of the fittest' in his edition of Origins of the Species.
The theory of social Darwinism created the thinking of the 'survival of the fittest' as that the
strongest and the fittest should survive and flourish in society, and the weak should be
allowed to die out. This allowed Spencer to believe that the rich and powerful became so
because they were better-suited to the social and economic climate of the time. He believed it
was natural or normal that the strong survived at the cost of the weak.

Societies can be compared to organisms in that both have three main systems


The
negati
ve
side
of
believ
ing in
social
Darwi
nism
is the
false
concept that if something naturally happens then it is alright or good that humans do it as
well. On the extreme side, this thinking is part of what led to the rise of the practice of
eugenics with the Nazi party in Germany or the American eugenics movement of 1910-1930.
On the positive side, social Darwinism led to the creation of programs that allowed deserving
participants to receive resources that would help them change their dire circumstances.
Structural-Functionalist Theorist
Spencer is one of the top three sociologists who influenced the thinking of the structural-
functional perspective. This influence is placed right alongside those of Auguste Comte, the
founder of sociology, and Emile Durkheim.
In helping to explain the structural-functional perspective, which simply believes that society
is made up of various structures (or parts) and that each has a function (or a job) to perform,
we see that when all the structures are performing their functions correctly, then society as a
whole runs stable and smooth.
Spencer equated this perspective to the human body: the body is made up of the structural
parts like the skeleton, muscles and internal organs. Each of these structures serves a
function, and the body runs smoothly if all functions are running correctly


Spencer believed that it was natural for the strong to survive at the cost of the weak