{"title":"The Instruments of Evolution: Herbert Spencer's Influence on William Stanley Jevons' Political Thought","authors":"Eleonora Buono","doi":"10.53765/20512988.44.4.705","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"This paper investigates Herbert Spencer's influence on William Stanley Jevons' political thought. Jevons' thought was shaped by three ideas, which can be traced back to Spencer: the idea that individuals were no tabula rasa ; the belief that evolution was a beneficent process; and the idea that moral sentiment evolved towards perfection. I will also show why Jevons supported the idea of interventionist social reform, which Spencer rejected, and I will argue that this disagreement stemmed from Jevons' commitment to Jeremy Bentham's utilitarianism.","PeriodicalId":51773,"journal":{"name":"HISTORY OF POLITICAL THOUGHT","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.5000,"publicationDate":"2023-11-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"HISTORY OF POLITICAL THOUGHT","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.53765/20512988.44.4.705","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"HISTORY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
This paper investigates Herbert Spencer's influence on William Stanley Jevons' political thought. Jevons' thought was shaped by three ideas, which can be traced back to Spencer: the idea that individuals were no tabula rasa ; the belief that evolution was a beneficent process; and the idea that moral sentiment evolved towards perfection. I will also show why Jevons supported the idea of interventionist social reform, which Spencer rejected, and I will argue that this disagreement stemmed from Jevons' commitment to Jeremy Bentham's utilitarianism.
期刊介绍：
History of Political Thought (HPT) is a quarterly journal which was launched in 1980 to fill a genuine academic need for a forum for work in this multi-disciplinary area. Although a subject central to the study of politics and history, researchers in this field had previously to compete for publication space in journals whose intellectual centres of gravity were located in other disciplines. The journal is devoted exclusively to the historical study of political ideas and associated methodological problems. The primary focus is on research papers, with extensive book reviews and bibliographic surveys also included. All articles are refereed.
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