All Posts Tagged With: "Herbert Spencer"

Social Cooperation, Part 2

Last month I wrote about Ludwig von Mises’s emphasis on social cooperation as the basis of his economic philosophy, particularly in his magnum opus, Human Action. I thought I’d follow up with more thoughts on this subject. Mises was no maverick in this regard. Interest in social cooperation pervades the best classical-liberal and libertarian thought. [...]

30Nov2011 | Sheldon Richman | 0 comments | Continued

Social Cooperation, Part 2

Only individuals value, choose, and act, of course, but in an important sense the resulting social whole is greater than the sum of its individual parts.

26Aug2011 | Sheldon Richman | 19 comments | Continued

Herbert Spencer: Libertarian Prophet

At the time of his death a century ago, the English social theorist Herbert Spencer (1820-1903) was widely considered one of the most significant thinkers of his era, a scholar of encyclopedic learning and enormous vision whose works formed a regular part of university curricula in philosophy and the social sciences. Today he is seldom [...]

7Jul2010 | Roderick T. Long | 5 comments | Continued

Good Money: Birmingham Button Makers, the Royal Mint, and the Beginnings of Modern Coinage, 1775–1821

Most people suppose, without having thought much about it, that money must be provided by government. That belief comes in for a sound thrashing in University of Georgia professor George Selgin’s book Good Money, which tells the story of Britain’s experience with private coinage during the Industrial Revolution. Selgin’s research shows that the government had [...]

24Feb2010 | George C. Leef | 2 comments | Continued

TGIF: Let's Ignore Congress

I spent a good part of Wednesday night closely skimming — my conscience won’t let me type “reading” — the Republicans’ alternative healthcare “reform” bill. It’s 219 pages of legalese. I know it’s one-tenth the size of Speaker Pelosi’s bill, but that doesn’t make for easier navigation. Figuring out how it all would work is [...]

7Nov2009 | Sheldon Richman | 0 comments | Continued

Prophets of Property

In 1800, fewer than 1 million people lived in London; a century later, well over 6 million. As the 20th century dawned, London had already been the most populous city on the planet for seven decades. Britain’s population as a whole soared from 8 million in 1800 to 40 million in 1900. In the previous [...]

1Jul2007 | Lawrence W. Reed | 0 comments | Continued

Spencer’s Law: Another Reason Not to Worry

One of the constant themes of today’s media is crisis and panic. Everywhere we look we are told there is some dreadful social problem, a threat to all that is good and true. Moreover, it is getting worse and will bring disaster upon all of us—unless “we do something.” (The authors of these jeremiads always [...]

1Aug2001 | Stephen Davies | 0 comments | Continued

Mr. Spencer Versus the State

Herbert Spencer, who would have been 178 years old in April, is a hero of mine. Spencer made himself the very symbol of laissez-faire liberalism in late nineteenth-century England and the United States. He was so much the symbol that he was regularly attacked by the intellectuals who wanted to replace laissez faire—imperfectly as it [...]

1May1998 | Sheldon Richman | 0 comments | Continued

Principles Are Inflexible

Extracted from Social Statics. New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1865. Make a hole through a principle to admit a solitary exception, and, on one pretence or other, exceptions will by and by be thrust through after it, as to render the principle utterly good for nothing. In fact, if its consequences are closely traced, [...]

1Sep1955 | Herbert Spencer | 1 comment | Continued

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