The Principles of Sociology, Volume I, Herbert Spencer's 1876 treatise from Williams and Norgate, is Spencer's own foundational sociological work, developing his organic analogy of society and his account of the origin of religious ideas in ancestor worship. Its strength is that it is the primary text of one of sociology's founding figures, in his own words. Its limit is its age, nearly a century and a half, and Spencer's own evolutionary framework, which later anthropology and sociology of religion have substantially revised or abandoned; readers wanting the field's current state should pair it with modern scholarship.
Facts
Assessment
Reliability Tier2
Reliability tier 2: a foundational primary text by a major historical theorist, valuable in his own words but nearly a century and a half old and substantially revised by later scholarship. NotesHerbert Spencer's foundational sociological treatise, volume I, Williams and Norgate, 1876.
Citation
AuthorHerbert Spencer
PublisherWilliams and Norgate
Publication Year1876
Source Typeprimary-text
Claims Backed By This Source (10 claims)
This source backs 10 claims across the atlas. As facts: 8 well-attested, 1 popular myth - corrected. Plus 1 entities citing it as a general reference with no single fact or relationship attached.
Disposition By Topic
- Sources, 7 claims: 7 well-attested.
- Doctrines, 3 claims: 1 well-attested, 1 popular myth - corrected, 1 general references.
Popular myth - corrected
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