Biological Fact and the Structure of Society. The Herbert Spencer Lecture, 28 February 1912. Oxford

Summary

There are signs that the civilised world is at length awakening to the fact that the knowledge needed for the right direction of social progress must be gained by biological observation and experiment. Such a turn in public opinion would, we may be sure, have been viewed by Herbert Spencer with exceptional interest and approval. The truth, so obvious to the naturalist, that man is an animal, subject to the same physical laws of development as other animals, is a doctrine he constantly expounded, and perhaps his teaching did more than that of any other philosopher towards helping men to see themselves as they really are, stripped of the sanctity with which superstition and ignorance have through all ages invested the human species.

Spencer not only contributed that great service, but I suppose that no one ever looked forward with serener confidence or a fuller optimism to the consequences which follow upon a recognition of these natural facts, to the possibility of a further evolution of our species, and to the certainty that by his own action the destiny of man may be controlled. It is natural therefore that in a lecture founded to commemorate his work we should examine the possibilities of biological discovery as applied to the constitution and future of human society.