Author: Herbert Spencer, English philosopher
Context: 1857, prior to Darwin’s “The Origin of Species”, on the tail-end of the first Industrial Revolution
Language: inquisitive and scholarly; here he asked what social progress really meant and whether it should be redefined
Audience: the intelligent but uninformed, more specifically those interested in philosophy and anthropology
Intent: to direct scholars’ attention to another way of thinking about society and social progress; until this time most were under the impression that social progress meant that societies were improving the standard of living.… Read the rest here