August 29, 2019 Thursday
Bedtime Story
Popularity of the Ideas of Herbert Spencer
For reasons not quite well known the
writings of Herbert Spencer as a philosopher and sociologist gained immense
popularity with him becoming the first and perhaps the only philosopher in
history to sell over a million copies of his combined writings while still
alive.
(Oddly enough very soon after his death –
and quite aptly if I may add so - the popularity of his works began to decline
and after the Holocaust and World War II his ideas began to be ridiculed as a
“parody of philosophy”).
To have people read and enjoy what you
write is certainly a great satisfaction but to have your writings sold in
record numbers is the ultimate triumph for a writer.
This is what for what both my exemplars
Asimov and Dawkins achieved in their lives I both respect and envy them as I
know that in this respect (that is, monetizing my thoughts and words) I can
never even come close to them.
Spencer found an authorized publisher in
the United States by the name of Appleton that sold 368,755 copies of his
various works between 1860 and 1903.
The count of pirated versions which were
popular and in vogue then in the United States like in the third-world
countries of today remains unknowns.
Remember that books used to be an expensive
stuff back then because printing costs were high.
In fact I recall buying books from the
stalls of A. H. Wheeler and Company at the Howrah Railway Station or the Higginbotham’s
Limited in Madras when we were little children and such little delights always
came at a price that burnt a nice hole in my father’s pockets.
Similar such number of copies of his work
were sold in his homeland and perhaps all over the British Empire which was
very influential and intellectuals from all over the world would have been keen
to know the new thoughts coming out from the Empire much like it is today with
the United States that today remains the strongest supportive base for
intellectual ideas to flourish and proliferate.
His ideas and writings found the greatest
appeal among the educated and the skilled professional class such as doctors,
engineers, lawyers and of course nouveau riche Americans.
While few of the wealthy Americans
prescribed to the philanthropic philosophy of Andrew Carnegie and most of them
preferred to embrace the very appealing and contrary views espoused by Spencer
which encouraged the wealthy to retain their wealth since their capital was
solely due to the individual’s intelligence and labor.
Spencer’s outlook also implied (and perhaps
sometimes overtly expressed so) as a corollary that the vast masses of poverty that
prevailed alongside the few wealthy of the Gilded Age was also deserved.
The gilded age - very much as it is in today’s
world in almost all the nations and perhaps even to a greater extent than in
the United States at the turn of the nineteenth century - saw unbelievable
inequality of wealth distribution in the country.
The topmost affluent 2% of American
industrialists and families owned more a third of the nation’s wealth.
If you considered the top 10% of the
wealthy Americans of that era they had in their hands three quarter of
country’s GDP.
Stay tuned to the voice of an
average story storytelling chimpanzee or login at http://panarrans.blogspot.com
Good night Mon Ami and my fellow cousin ape.
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Another great educator and a teacher that I am aware of is
Professor Subhashish Chattopadhyay in Bangalore, India.
While I narrate stories, Professor Subhashish an electronic
engineer and a former professor at BARC, does and teaches real mathematics and
physics.
He started the participation of Indian students at the
International Physics Olympiad.
Do visit him here:
All his books can be downloaded for free through this link:
For edutainment and English education of your children, I
recommend this large collection of Halloween Songs for Kids:
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