Synopses & Reviews
Spencer had caught a vision of what might be in store for mankind if its potential were free to realize itself.
— Edmund A. Opitz, The Freeman
This volume contains the four essays that Spencer published as The Man Versus the State in 1884 as well as five essays added by later publishers. In addition, it provides "The Proper Sphere of Government," an important early essay by Spencer.
Spencer develops various specific disastrous ramifications of the wholesale substitution of the principle of compulsory cooperation—the statist principle—for the individualist principle of voluntary cooperation. His theme is that "there is in society . . . that beautiful self-adjusting principle which will keep all its elements in equilibrium. . . . The attempt to regulate all the actions of a community by legislation will entail little else but misery and compulsion."
Eric Mack is Professor of Philosophy at Newcomb College of Tulane University
Synopsis
Spencer develops various specific disastrous ramifications of the wholesale substitution of the principle of compulsory cooperation -- the statist principle -- for the individualist principle of voluntary cooperation. His theme is that "there is in society . . . that beautiful self-adjusting principle which will keep all its elements in equilibrium. . . . The attempt to regulate all the actions of a community by legislation will entail little else but misery and compulsion."
Table of Contents
Publisher's Note vii
Foreword by Eric Mack ix
Introduction by Albert Jay Nock xxi
The Man Versus The State (1884) 1
Preface 3
The New Toryism 5
The Coming Slavery 31
The Sins of Legislators 71
The Great Political Superstition 123
Postscript 167
Six Essays on Government, Society, and Freedom 179
The Proper Sphere of Government (1843) 181
Over-Legislation (1853) 265
Representative Government--What Is It Good For? (1857) 331
The Social Organism (1860) 383
Specialized Administration (1871) 435
From Freedom to Bondage (1891) 487
Index 519