Differentiation of Function
... progressive differentiation of structures is accompanied by progressive
differentiation of functions.
The divisions... which arise in a developing animal... do not assume
their... unlikeness to no purpose. Along with diversities in their shapes
and compositions go diversities in the actions they perform: they grow into
unlike organs having unlike duties.
A limb, instrumental in locomotion or prehension, acquires divisions and
sub-divisions which perform their leading and subsidiary shares in this
office.
So it is with the parts into which a society divides. A dominant class
arising does not simply become unlike the rest, but assumes control over
the rest, and when this class separates into the more and less dominant,
these again begin to discharge distinct parts of the entire control.
Evolution and dissolution
Stanislav Andreski says Spencer's key concept was
evolution, by which he meant the process of increasing
differentiation (that is to say specialisation of functions) and
integration (by which he meant mutual interdependence of the structurally
differentiated parts and co-ordination of their functions). He believed
that evolution as thus conceived could be discerned in all the realms of
the universe, including inanimate matter". Spencer's formulation of the
concept was "evolution and dissolution".
Spencer argued that the complex organisation of multiple parts with
different natures is more
stable than simple uniform organisation of identical or similar parts. This
argument was taken up by Emile Durkheim (see his criticism of
Community Disintegration Theory)
who argued that
segmental society,
where the units are similar, is unstable compared with
organised society
where individuals have different functions.
From
First Principles (1893 edition)
Evolution and dissolution
An entire history of anything must include its appearance out of the
imperceptible and its disappearance into the imperceptible. Be it a single
object or the whole universe...
...
... science, tracing back the genealogies of various objects, finds their
components were once in diffused states, and pursuing their histories
forwards, finds diffused states will again be assumed by them...
...
The change from a diffused, imperceptible state to a concentrated,
perceptible state is an integration of matter and concomitant dissipation
of motion; and the change from a concentrated, perceptible state to a
diffused, imperceptible state is an absorption of motion and concomitant
disintegration of matter.
...
When taken together, the two opposite processes thus formulated constitute
the history of every sensible existence, under its simplest form. Loss of
motion and consequent integration, eventually followed by gain of motion
and consequent disintegration...
...
Evolution under its simplest and most general aspect is the
integration of
matter and concomitant dissipation of motion; while
dissolution is the
absorption of motion and concomitant disintegration of matter.
The components of the mass while they become integrated also become
differentiated.
...
... society in its first and lowest form is a homogeneous aggregation of
individuals having like powers and like functions: the only marked
differences of function being that which accompanies difference of sex.
Every man is a warrior, hunter, fisherman, tool-maker, builder; every woman
performs the same drudgeries; every family is self-sufficing...
From
The Principles of Sociology
One who made the analogies between individual organisation and social
organisation his special subject, might carry them further in several
directions...
... as in individual organisms so in social organisms, after the structures
proper to the type have fully evolved there presently begins a slow decay.
He could not, indeed, furnish satisfactory proof of this; since among
ancient societies, essentially militant in their activities, dissolution by
conquest habitually prevented the cycle of changes from being completed;
and since modern societies are passing through their cycles.
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