A Research On Liberalism Of Herbert Spencer

The Liberalism have a great variety in Victorian era.In this time,the philosophers in the field of liberalism not only show a great great concern to the relationship between individuals and the government,but also began to pay attention to the relationship between individuals and society,Herbert Spencer is the one of them.However,the liberalism of Herbert Spencer have attracted little attention.This paper is aimed at understanding the connotative,revealing the particularity and facing up to the value of his liberalism through unscrambling the book Social Statics and the Man versus the State.Except the parts of introduction and conclusion,this paper falls into five parts:The first part will mainly make a brief introduction about the history of liberalism in Britain,especially introduce the various liberalism in Victorian era.Base on this,the part will induct the question of this paper: the characters of the liberalism of Herbert Spencer.Before the nineteenth century,the liberalism of Britain experienced the periods of Economic liberalism,Political liberalism and Social liberalism,and the liberalism of Herbert Spencer appears in the Social liberalism,in which the liberalism was diverse.Among the various thoughts of liberalism,the liberalism of Herbert Spencer have its own feature: establish a special liberalism which was based on the utilitarianism,the theory of social organism and Social Evolutionism and the core of which is Equal Freedom.The second part will analyze the basements of the liberalism of Herbert Spencer.First,Herbert Spencer put forward his theory based on the utilitarianism.Second,based on the theory of social organism,Herbert Spencer point out every one should control his behaviors rightly,because everyone should take the inter-dependence into account when they are striving for their own freedom,and not infringe others' equal freedom.The last,according to the Social Evolutionism,the society tends to guarantee the freedom of every one,and will become more free.The third part will explain the core of Herbert Spencer's liberalism: Equal Freedom,including the connotation and the origin of it.Next,the part will make a contrast between the Equal Freedom and the Harm Principle of John Stuart Mill.The Equal Freedom,which is the corn of Herbert Spencer's liberalism,means that every one has the freedom to do all that he wills,provided he infringes the equal freedom of any other man.Herbert Spencer proves theEqual Freedom is the correct principle from the aspects of the utilitarianism and Social Evolutionism.Compared with the Harm Principle,the Equal Freedom not only based on the utilitarianism,but also based on the Social Evolutionism,and if someone violate the Equal Freedom,the society do not have the jurisdiction.The forth part will introduce and analyze the theory of state of Herbert Spencer.In this theory,the corn is also the Equal Freedom,Herbert support the non-intervention,because not all the government which consist of the citizen or depend on the social contract is worthy of trust,the power of government is must be limited.And Herbert Spencer also prove this view by means of criticizing the Britain's legislation in that time.The fifth part will elaborate the effects of the liberalism of Herbert Spencer.On one hand,it affects the thoughts of Leonard Trelawney Hobhouse,Hobhouse according to the way in which Spencer study his theory,apply the theory of social organism and Social Evolutionism into his thoughts to explain the relationship between the individuals and society or state.On the other hand,Herbert Spencer's liberalism lays a foundation for the thoughts of Yanfu,who advocate the freedom of citizen to rescue the national crisis of china in the late of nineteenth century.