Herbert Spencer on Parental Responsibility

The English philosopher and sociologist Herbert Spencer (1820-1903) has achievedfame andfar reaching intellectual influence through his voluminous writings about social and biological change, ethics, and political theory. In the second half of the 19th century, Spencer's writings, along with the works of Charles Darwin and Thomas Huxley, made the major contribution to the acceptance of the theory of evolution by a wide public. Coiner of the phrase of thefittest (in 1852, seven years before the appearance of The Origin of Species), Spencer's name is associated with the application of Darwinian ideas to the interpretation of social change. He sought to derive his ethical and political system from the scientific principles of evolutionist theory, yet his social analysis and normative prescriptions reflect the independent effect of strong political convictions (he was an uncompromising advocate of an individualist minimum state) and, not the least, of Victorian morality. The text below appeared as Chapter IX in Volume I of Spencer's The Principles of Ethics under the title Parenthood. It is reproduced here from the 1892 (first) edition published in London by Williams and Norgate. Spencer's unqualified condemnation of what he sees as usurpation of parental responsibilities by the state exhibits a characteristically narrow interpretation, indeed perhaps a misunderstanding, of the process: it ignores the possibility that voluntary cooperation between individuals can lead to institutional arrangements that both entail a significant degree of sharing of the costs of educating the young and possess a positive survival value. Still, even though Spencer's conjecture that the future direction of change in matters relating to childrearing will be toward increasing the importance of parental roles has thus far proven wrong, his discussion of the links between parental responsibility for child support and reproductive behavior and his comments on the proper sphere of parental duties probe into issues that to this day remain unsatisfactorily resolved and contentious. His observations on the consequences of reckless multiplication for the welfare, physical and mental, of both children and parents-on the consequences of attempting to rear large families on small wages -also find resonance in current debates about population problems. Similarly, Spencer's citing of cases of uncivilized peoples where evolutionary ethics provides a check on too frequent childbearing

Criminology · Environmental ethics · Law and economics · Sociology · Family Dynamics and Relationships · Philosophy