Chapter 2
Organic Evolution—Herbert Spencer
Chapter Objectives:
After reading and understanding this chapter, a student should be able to
 Define grand theory
 Explain the basic processes of Spencerian evolution
 Describe the implications of the functionalist evolutionary model
 Explain how societies structurally differentiate
 Discuss the problems associated with structural differentiation and their
solutions
 Define the idea of postmodernity and explain postmodern religion as a
case in point
Key Concepts: positivism; grand theory; matter, force, and motion; instability of
homogeneous units; multiplication of effects; segregation; organismic analogy; requisite
needs; systems; equilibrium; system needs; regulatory function; operative functions;
distributive function; structure; structural differentiation; compounding; postindustrial
society; simple, compound, and doubly compound; coordination and control; militaristic
and industrial societies; social institutions; domestic institutions; polyandry, polygyny,
and monogamy; ceremonial institutions; political institutions; ecclesiastical institutions
Chapter Outline:
I. Spencer’s Perspective: The Evolution of the Universe at a Glance
Key concepts: positivism; grand theory; matter, force, and motion; instability of
homogeneous units; multiplication of effects; segregation; organismic analogy; requisite
needs; systems; equilibrium
A. Grand theory
B. Evolution
!. Basic building blocks: matter, force, and motion
2. Primary dynamics: instability of homogeneous units, the multiplication
of effects, and segregation
C. Evolutionary progress
1. Fundamental link between environments and systems
2. Competition creates most societal and individual differences
3. Generally evolutionary movement from simple to differentiated
structures (Figure 2.1)
D. Implications of evolutionary/functional model
1. Organismic analogy
2. Requisite needs
3. Systemic interrelations and equilibrium
II. Social Evolution
Key Concepts: system needs; regulatory function; operative functions; distributive
function; structure; structural differentiation; compounding; postindustrial society;
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simple, compound, and doubly compound; coordination and control; militaristic and
industrial societies
A. General theoretical issues in social evolution
1. Social system needs
a. Regulatory
b. Operative
c. Distributive
2. Needs and structures
a. Needs met through structures
b. Basic quality of structure: connections
c. Basic definition of social structure: connections among sets of
positions that form a network
d. Connections defined in terms of status positions, roles, and
norms
3. Evolutionary, structural phases
a. Differentiation
b. Specialization
c. Integration
B. Dynamics specific to society
1. Primary force: population growth
2. Two basic ways populations grow
a. Birth rate
b. Compounding
3. Effects of population growth on the regulatory function (government)
a. Layers of government: simple, compound, doubly compound
b. Problems of coordination and control
i. Mutual dependency and centralization of power (Figure
2.2)
c. Militaristic and Industrial typology (Table 2.1)
d. Regression to militaristic (Figure 2.3)
i. Forces for
a) Pressure from military complex
b) Threat
c) Presence of territorial subjects
ii. Impediments to
a) Social diversity
b) Institutional configurations
III. Social Institutions
Key concepts: social institutions; domestic institutions; polyandry, polygyny, and
monogamy; ceremonial institutions; political institutions; ecclesiastical institutions
A. Four defining characteristics of institutions
1. Collective solutions to survival problems
2. Not reducible to individual actions and resist modification
3. Not subjectively available
4. Moral phenomena
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B. Domestic institutions
1. In absence of alternatives, main organizing principle for society
2. Monogamy selected for its
a. Ability to produce and socialize offspring
b. Ability to create political lineages and stable social relationships
C. Ceremonial institutions
1. One of the three major forms of social control (political, ecclesiastical)
2. Control through rituals and symbols that denote hierarchical
relationships
3. The use of ceremonial institutions goes down as the use of political and
ecclesiastical controls goes up
4. Ceremonial institutions tend to become more abstract as society
becomes reflexive
D. Political institutions
1. Primitive form of government (basis for all subsequent forms)
a. Basic division between strength and age
b. Three levels from the two divisions: predominant man, superior
few, inferior many
2. Principal changes involve increasing levels of government and the
centralization of power
a. Levels of government increase in response to gradual population
growth
b. Power centralizes in response to problems of coordination and
control and environmental threat
E. Ecclesiastical institutions
1. Religion began as humans experienced “other self” in dreams
2. This led to belief in afterlife and with it “ghost-propitiation”
3. Main factors leading to modern religion
a. Structural differentiation from family
b. Incorporation of diverse groups of people
c. Centralization and bureaucratization of polity
IV. Thinking About Modernity and Postmodernity
Key concepts: modernity; postmodernity; Enlightenment; grand narratives; structural
fragmentation; de-centering; great transcendences
A. Defining postmodernity
1. Always in comparison to modernity
a. Enlightenment and progress
b. Grand narratives and beliefs
c. Structures of capitalism, science, technology, and nation
2. Postmodernity brings structural fragmentation and deinstitutionalization through increasing levels of
a. Structural differentiation
b. Transportation and communication technologies and
infrastructures
c. Speed of market exchange and expansion
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d. Institutional doubt
3. Main effects: culture and identities/individuals simultaneously become
more important and less viable.
B. Postmodern case in point: religion
1. Primary functions of religion
a. Provide ultimate meaning systems that can explain all events
b. Legitimate and stabilize meaning
2. Structural differentiation and specialization, along with increases in
mass media, decentralized religious functions
a. Religion now individuated and person can pick and choose
b. But this market-like situation implies that the certainty of
ultimate meanings decreases
Chapter Summary:
 Spencer’s perspective is in many ways foundational for sociology. He explicates
the basic premises with which most sociologists will either agree or disagree.
Spencer’s point of view is founded on positivism, the search for the invariant laws
that govern the universe. He approaches society as if it was an object in the
environment, and his purpose as a theorist is to simply describe how this object
works. Notice that for his time Spencer had a fairly radical point of view; yet, his
is not a critical theory. The reason for this blend of radical yet descriptive
perspective is that Spencer sees the dynamics of progress existing within the
evolutionary process. It is less important, then, to try and change the way people
think about society. For Spencer, society works much like an organic system,
with various parts functioning for the welfare of the whole. He extends the
analogy to explicate the evolutionary changes in society, from simple to complex
structural differentiation. The evolution of society occurs in much the same way
that evolution occurs universally, through the motion and force of matter driven
by the instability of homogeneous units, segmentation, and the multiplication of
effects.
 All systems have universal needs: regulation, operation, and distribution. Every
system, including society, meets these needs through various kinds of structures.
The ways in which the needs are met, produce the unique features of each system
and society. Generally speaking, there is an evolutionary trend toward greater
structural differentiation and specialization, with system needs being met through
separate and distinct structures. For society, this trend is driven by increases in
population size. As the population increases, especially through compounding,
structures differentiate and specialize in function. This process produces
interstructural dependency but also problems in coordination and control. In
response, society tends to centralize the regulatory subsystem, which, along with
dependency, facilitates system integration. However, too much regulation can
cause stagnation and pressures for deregulation. In reaction to these system
pressures, societies in the long run move back and forth on a continuum between
militaristic and industrial.
 Social institutions are special kinds of structures. They are organized around
societal needs, resist change, and are morally infused. All institutions, however,
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
change slowly through evolutionary pressures, and because they are functionally
related, change is mutual and generally in the same direction. Generally
speaking, family evolves from universal promiscuity to monogamy (monogamy is
evolutionarily chosen because it provides more explicit and stable social
relations); religion moves from polytheism to monotheism (monotheism has the
evolutionary advantage of providing a single legitimating and enforcing
mechanism for diverse populations and bureaucratic states); the state generally
moves from militaristic with simpler political structures to industrial with more
complex structures; and ceremonial institutions generally recede in importance as
religion, family, and polity become successful structures. In spite of this, the
political and ceremonial structures tend to move back and forth on a continuum in
response to vested interests, perceived threat, and the level of social inequality.
Modernity for Spencer is characterized by high levels of structural differentiation.
This increased complexity gives modern societies greater adaptability and
increased chances of survival. Postmodernity is characterized by institutional and
cultural fragmentation. The main difference between differentiation and
fragmentation revolves around unity—in differentiated systems the different
elements are linked together whereas in a fragmented system the parts are not as
organized and have greater freedom. The effects of postmodernity are themselves
contradictory: culture and self (subjective experience) are simultaneously
becoming more important and less real and meaningful. Religion is a case in
point: religion in postmodernity is less centrally organized and thus open to
increasingly idiosyncratic interpretations.
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