Social Evolution, Progress and Teleology in Spencer's Synthetic Philosophy and Freudian Psychoanalysis

This article compares notions of progress and evolution in the social theories of Freud and Herbert Spencer, thus revising Freudian social theory and relocating it within a social-evolutionist tradition. It first argues that the two authors held similarly complex theories that contained mixed elemen...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:American imago 2021, Vol.78 (1), p.105-130
Main Author: Niro, Leonardo
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
19th century
Civilization
Ethics
Evolution
Freud, Sigmund (1856-1939)
Natural law
Philosophy
Positivism
Psychoanalysis
Scholarships & fellowships
Science
Social evolution
Social sciences
Social theories
Society
Sociology
Traditions
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:This article compares notions of progress and evolution in the social theories of Freud and Herbert Spencer, thus revising Freudian social theory and relocating it within a social-evolutionist tradition. It first argues that the two authors held similarly complex theories that contained mixed elements of positivism and teleology –in its positivist aspects, both authors made use of unified natural laws and, in its teleological aspects, they understood progress and the evolution of civilization along a linear path of progressive development. It is further examined how both authors made use of analogies between organisms and social aggregates–in Freud's case, he formulated a libidinal analogy between the stages of psychosexual development and the civilizatory stages. Finally, it is examined the ethical commitments to the individual that are consequences of such an understanding of the natural law.
ISSN:0065-860X
1085-7931
1085-7931
DOI:10.1353/aim.2021.0003