## Key Ideas > [!abstract] Core Concepts > > - **Evolutionary Perfectionism**: Believed evolution would create perfect individuals through natural consequences of behaviour > - **Anti-State Intervention**: Opposed public education, poverty relief, and vaccination as interference with natural development > - **Pseudoscientific Foundation**: Based philosophy on now-debunked Lamarckism mixed with romanticism ## Definition **Herbert Spencer**: English philosopher who promoted evolutionary perfectionism, opposing state intervention in education based on discredited evolutionary theory. ## Connected To [[Education as Natural Development]] | [[Jean-Jacques Rousseau]] | [[Non-Explicit Teaching]] --- ## Core Philosophy Herbert Spencer's educational philosophy stemmed from his misguided interpretation of evolutionary theory. Spencer believed evolution was not a random process but would eventually create perfect individuals in a perfect society. For evolution to work properly, individuals must experience the "natural" consequences of their behaviour to provide incentives for self-improvement. **Example**: Aggression was survival instinct necessary for primitive life but maladaptive in advanced societies, so would be phased out by 'survival of the fittest'. ## Educational Implications Spencer's evolutionary theory led him to oppose virtually all forms of state intervention, including in education. Spencer denounced state power to provide: - Public education - Poverty relief - Compulsory vaccination For children to develop naturally, educator's role is to get out of the way. Instead of placing children on shoulders of giants, place them in forest glade to play and discover. ## Historical context 'Progressivist' philosophers like Spencer and [[Jean-Jacques Rousseau]] mixed romanticism with pseudoscience (Lamarckism) to claim natural child development was essential for evolutionary ascent of human species. **Modern connection**: Influenced [[Non-Explicit Teaching]] approaches emphasising discovery over explicit instruction. ## Scientific problems Spencer's educational philosophy rests on discredited scientific foundations. **Lamarckism debunked**: Modern genetics disproves the inheritance of acquired characteristics. **Evidence absence**: Philosophy based on beliefs rather than empirical research on student outcomes. **Practical issues**: Natural development philosophy difficult to implement effectively in real classrooms. ## References Dupré, L. (2008). *The Enlightenment and the intellectual foundations of modern culture*. Yale University Press. Geary, D. C. (2007). Educating the evolved mind: Conceptual foundations for an evolutionary educational psychology. In J. S. Carlson & J. R. Levin (Eds.), *Psychological perspectives on contemporary educational issues* (pp. 1-99). Information Age Publishing. Kirschner, P. A., Sweller, J., & Clark, R. E. (2006). Why minimal guidance during instruction does not work: An analysis of the failure of constructivist, discovery, problem-based, experiential, and inquiry-based teaching. *Educational Psychologist*, 41(2), 75-86. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15326985ep4102_1 Spencer, H. (1860). *Education: Intellectual, moral, and physical*. D. Appleton and Company. Spencer, H. (1864). *The principles of biology* (Vol. 1). Williams and Norgate. Spencer, H. (1896). *Social statics: The conditions essential to human happiness specified, and the first of them developed*. D. Appleton and Company. (Original work published 1851)