Herbert Spencer: The functions and systems of sustaining and distributing among competing organs of society

The Principles of Sociology, Volume 1, Part 2 [Inductions of Sociology], Chapters 5-8..

“Who now reads Spencer?” [These are the first 4 words of Talcott Parsons’s The Structure of Social Action (1937).] We do. And who now reads Parsons? We do, despite being less fun than Spencer. As Parsons read Weber, as Durkheim read Spencer, and as Luhmann read Parsons, Social Science Files reads the foundational five.

Please bear in mind I am concentrat…