Social Darwinism - Herbert Spencer & William James - History of Psychology Series

Lecture Topic: History of Psychology – Ep 7 – Social Darwinism: Herbert Spencer & William James

In this lecture we will review how the Evolutionary Theory came to America via Herbert Spencer. Spencer coined the term “Survival of the Fittest” (not Darwin), and humans and businesses should be allowed to operate freely, and only the best would survive. Spencer believed that people, programs, businesses, or institutions that could not adapt were “unfit” for survival and should be allowed to perish (to become extinct) for the betterment of society as a whole. Eugenics: the study of or belief in the possibility of improving the qualities of the human species or a human population, especially by such means as discouraging reproduction by persons having genetic defects or presumed to have inheritable undesirable traits (negative eugenics) or encouraging reproduction by persons presumed to have inheritable desirable traits (positive eugenics); Origin first recorded in 1880-85 (dictionary.com)

William James did not found functional psychology, but he presented his ideas clearly and effectively with the functionalist atmosphere that was pervading American psychology (Schultz, 2015). James used Spencer’s book “The Principles of Psychology” (first two volumes on synthetic philosophy) as a textbook for the first psychology course he taught a Harvard.

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