Individualism and the Social Order

McCann, Charles R.

doi:10.4324/9780203488720

Cited by 14 publications

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“…First a few cautionary remarks are needed. We have seen that although there is no firm evidence that Hayek was influenced by Spencer, it has quite often been observed, especially of the areas of Spencer's thought discussed in this article, that there is a palpable affinity (Smith, 1981;McCann, 2004) 20 . However, ideas such as "social self-consciousness" need not be confined to serving an explicitly political "neo-liberal" approach to sociology.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 73%

“…Given the richness of Spencer's conception of individuals, he can fuse it with an organicist (note, not mechanistic) theory of social life, but with government occupying a limited “proper sphere”: “the individual is not to be seen as isolated or separate, but is rather socially situated, recognizable only through his connections to others in the society. Spencer's man is not Hobbes's man, nor is Spencer's individualism Hobbes's individualism, for Spencer is resolute in his rejection of the atomic postulate” (McCann, 2004 , pp. 125–126).…”

Section: The “Social Organism”mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For a long time, some critics have accused Spencer of writing things which in fact he did not write. With justice it has been said that “many find it unnecessary any longer to read Spencer's works in order to pretend to ‘know’ his social philosophy” (McCann, 2004 , p. 95). So this article at the start will have to “bracket off” some stigmatizing assumptions that the name Spencer probably conjures up.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Social Solidarity and Herbert Spencer: Not the Oxymoron That Might Be Assumed

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2019

Front. Sociol.

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This article attempts to retrieve important aspects of Spencer's sociology from the general neglect and misrepresentation which threatens to overwhelm it all. It does touch in passing on many such highly dubious contentions as that he was a "social Darwinist," but the prime focus is to deal with three linked themes. First, the article examines the significance of his attribution to individuals of "social self-consciousness" as part of sociality, thus distancing it from Durkheim's influential but suspect reading of Spencer's individuals as egoistic. Second, it rescues his concept of "the social organism" from misinterpretation. His own writings show it to be a more rigorous and suggestive attempt to configure the morphology of "the social" than commonly assumed. Third, it reconstructs the status of his contrast between "militant" and "industrial" social forms as a contrast between different but more general forms of social life that those descriptions in fact register. With the focus on these three linked themes the article improves the historical accuracy of our understanding of Spencer's sociology. It also repositions key aspects of it as not alien, quaint and a spent force, but ontologically challenging and possibly prescient for debates about the meaning of "the social" today.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 73%

Section: The “Social Organism”mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Social Solidarity and Herbert Spencer: Not the Oxymoron That Might Be Assumed

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2019

Front. Sociol.

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“… 2 McCann ( 2004 , p. 125–26) is also a key source arguing against seeing Spencer as a individual atomist. …”

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confidence: 99%

“… 12 There is no firm evidence that Freidrich Hayek was influenced by Spencer but there is some likeness (Smith, 1981 , 2013 , p. 203; McCann, 2004 ). In his “Sociology and neoliberalism: a missing history,” however, Gane makes no mention of how Hayek has similarities with Spencer on spontaneous cooperation, and on altruism (Gane, 2014 , p. 1101).…”

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confidence: 99%

Herbert Spencer, Sociological Theory, and the Professions

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2019

Front. Sociol.

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This article presents new insights into Spencer's theoretical sociology as he applied it to the professions and professional institutions, which he discussed extensively, particularly in his Principles of Sociology. The first part of this article notes the main conceptual insights which he established and aligns them within the wider context of a re-reading of Spencer's sociology. Particular attention is paid to the "social organism" and the spontaneous cooperation of social individuals in society (with each possessing "social self-consciousness"). This part also reappraises Spencer's account of the emergence of "professionals" and their distinctive "cunning, skill, and acquaintance with the nature of things," which professionals have brought to bear on what has been experienced in the ordinary social lives of people as complexity or the unfamiliar in the world. The subsequent discussion focuses on, first, a retrieval of Spencer's theoretical stance on the activities of the professions, and on work and conditions in general, and, second, on reviewing some of the major resonances which his work has with practical problems and the associated theoretical issues concerning the sociological understanding of professional/service-user interaction in social life today.

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Evaluating the impact of COVID‐19 on cancer declarations in Quebec, Canada

et al. 2022

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Background: COVID-19 affected healthcare worldwide, limited access to healthcare, and delayed cancer screening and diagnosis. In this study, the effect of the first year of COVID-19 was determined on cancer diagnoses in the province of Quebec, Canada. Methods: Data were collected from the 13 Quebec Cancer Registry health institutions. Newly diagnosed cancer declarations in the first year of the COVID-19 (April 2020-March 2021) were compared with the reference periods (averages of 3 previous years). The main focus was on four leading cancers: lung, prostate, colorectal, and breast cancers. Generalized regression models with a poisson approximation and interrupted time series (ITS) analysis were used. Underestimated cases were presented in terms of relative risk (RR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI). The changes in the stage-specific counts were also assessed in each of the four cancers. Results were illustrated separately for the first 4 months of the pandemic (first wave).Findings: This study estimated an overall under-reporting of 15.3% (29,019 vs. 24,584) of declarations. This under-reporting was evident across all age groups above 35 years (p < 0.0001), four primary cancers (p < 0.0001), all stages of cancers (p < 0.0001), and both sexes (p < 0.0001). Based on the relative risks, stage-specific lung cancer counts were underestimated by 5%-34% in the first wave (0%-11% in the first year), prostate cancer by 16%-46% in the first wave (0%-25% in the first year), colorectal cancer 15%-45% in the first wave (0%-24% in the first year), and breast cancer 3%-45% in the first wave and (0%-28% in the first year). However, no stage-IV cancers were statically under-reported compared to the pre-pandemic era and not even in the first wave.Interpretation: Cancer diagnosis was underestimated due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the first year; this effect was more evident in the first phase of the pandemic in Quebec. Further research is required to determine the accurate burden of the disease in the long term.

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Individualism and the Social Order

Cited by 14 publications

References 0 publications

Social Solidarity and Herbert Spencer: Not the Oxymoron That Might Be Assumed

Social Solidarity and Herbert Spencer: Not the Oxymoron That Might Be Assumed

Herbert Spencer, Sociological Theory, and the Professions

Evaluating the impact of COVID‐19 on cancer declarations in Quebec, Canada

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