earticle

영어

This study focuses on modern journals to survey Herbert Spencer’s theory of social evolution. According to Spencer’s representative works in the journals examined here, there are quite some aspects of social evolution which deserved criticism. This study first summarizes the characteristics of Spencer’s journal works which presents his central thoughts compactly and examines that these thoughts as being quite related to the common features of the social evolution theory. Next, I examine the debates between Spencer and the German evolutionist, August Weismann which went back and forth for three years, between 1893 to 1895, in the Contemporary Review. Although he received much influence from Darwin, Spencer presented Lamarck’s heredity of acquired character as the important law for human evolution while Weismann, like Darwin, announced that Natural Selection was the law of all organisms’ evolution. The series of the debates between Spencer and Weismann through journals reveal the production and development of discourse on how variation is passed onto the offspring. Lastly, I examine how the aggressive militarism and eugenics of the early 20th century partially selected Spencer’s thoughts and used artificially for their political purposes.