The Study of Sociology

The Study of Sociology, originally published in 1873, was Herbert Spencer's groundbreaking overview of the nascent science of social systems. His basic assertion was that societies were not the creations of a few 'great men,' as Nietzsche asserted, but that they resulted from the interplay of different institutions (such as government, religion, academia, media, economic models, and so forth). Taking a cue from biology, and the emerging theory of Natural Selection, he posited that, just as in evolution animals are shaped by their environment, so human beings (submerged in these social systems) are molded psychologically by their civilizational models.