Customer Reviews

Social Statics: The Conditions Essential to Human Happiness Specified, and The First of Them Developed

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If it were not for one mistaken aplication of his maxim, I would have to say that this is one of the most astounding, consistent exposition of libertarian theory in history. However, Spencer is not wholly consistent, and his main inconsistency is so important, that it cannot be safely overlooked. The lapse that I speak of is his absurd and anti-libertarian position on the private ownership of land. He believes that land cannot be rightfully held in private hands, but rather that "society" owns the land. This indeed is an extremely specious piece of logic for a man who upholds the rights of the individual over the "state," the "majority," and "society." Not only that, it mars his entire concept of a free society. Otherwise, this work represents a landmark in libertarian individualist thought. His theory of "equal freedom" is almost identical in spirit to the non-aggression maxims utilized by thinkers such as Ayn Rand and Murray Rothbard. His application of of this basic axiom is also impressive. He thoroughly any function of the state beyond the absolute minimum. Even further, he even acknowledges the "Right To Ignore The State." Nevertheless, his views on the private ownership of land are so out of line that I cannot honestly give this book the degree of praise that it could have very easily earned.

I was very disappointed in the quality of this reprint. It looks like a very poor scan of the original, with blotchy, hard-to-read type (poor resolution, perhaps, or somebody turned up the contrast on the scan too high in an effort to get rid of stains or some such thing), and it's been over-enlarged to make the page margins too small. It is painful to read, which would not be so awful if it were a short work but is downright prohibitive in a book of this length. I will go and seek out a better printing; this was a waste of money.

Excellent book, horrible scan. So horrible I had to return it. And it pained me to do so because it rules so much.