Part of: The Principles of Sociology, 3 vols. (1898) The Principles of Sociology, vol. 2 (1898)
- Herbert Spencer (author)
This is vol. 2 of the third revised edition of Herbert Spencer’s magnum opus on sociology which was first published in 1876. Here, he covers “ceremonial” institutions and political institutions (with his famous distinction between militant and industrial types of society). In vol. 3 he discusses ecclesiastical institutions, professional institutions, and “industrial” (or economic) institutions.
Key Quotes
Society
We find, then, that rules of behaviour are not results of conventions at one time or other deliberately made, as people tacitly assume. Contrariwise, they are natural products of social life which have gradually evolved. Apart from detailed proofs of this, we find a general proof in their…
The State
Making him more despotic at the same time that it augments his kingdom, continuance of this process [of fighting wars] increases his ability to enforce contributions, alike from his original subjects and from tributaries; while the necessity for supplies, now to defend his kingdom, now to invade…
Class
Where the life is permanently peaceful, definite class-divisions do not exist. … As, at first, the domestic relation between the sexes passes into a political relation, such that men and women become, in militant groups, the ruling class and the subject class; so does the relation between master…