Social Environment and Moral Progress

Wallace, Alfred Russel, 1823-1913Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.4

Word count: 184K words
Chapters: 19

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Social Environment and Moral Progress by Alfred Russel WallaceAuthor: Wallace, Alfred Russel, 1823-1913,Language: English, Class: HM: Social sciences: Sociology, Release Date: Oct 23, 2015

Editor's review

This book is a social commentary written in Alfred Russel Wallace's later years, discussing how the social environment affects moral ideas and moral progress. Wallace, as a naturalist and pioneer of evolutionary theory, turned to social issues, giving the book a distinctly interdisciplinary character: it contains observations of social institutions, poverty, education, and the environment of public opinion, and also attempts to understand the conditions for the development of human morality from an evolutionary perspective. Its value lies in showing how intellectuals in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries brought the ways of thinking of the natural sciences into discussions of social reform, providing a historical slice for understanding early sociological issues, moral philosophy, and public policy debates today. When reading, one should note its historical context; some judgments carry the limitations of the social thought of the time and should not be taken directly as contemporary conclusions. It is suitable as auxiliary reading for researchers of intellectual history, the history of sociology, or Wallace studies, and also suitable for readers interested in the classic question of the relationship between environment and morality to read with a critical eye.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers interested in the history of social thought and early sociological issues
Scholarly readers studying Wallace's thought or the social influence of evolutionary theory
Thinkers concerned with the classic question of the relationship between moral development and environment
Advanced readers willing to read classic social commentary with a critical perspective

Not a good fit for

Readers hoping for a systematic contemporary sociology textbook or the latest research
General readers expecting light reading or story-driven content
Readers who are resistant to the era-bound limitations in nineteenth-century social ideas

Reading tips

First understand Wallace's naturalist background and the period of writing, then enter the main text
Mark the premises of his arguments while reading, distinguishing era-specific judgments from questions that remain illuminating
Read alongside contemporary moral sociology or social policy discussions and keep critical notes
Read chapter by chapter by theme, and after each chapter summarize the author's core claims and evidence

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Is this book an evolutionary theory work written by Wallace?

No. This book is social commentary discussing the relationship between the social environment and moral progress, not a systematic exposition of biological evolution. Wallace's naturalist and evolutionary background influences his argumentative perspective, but it should be read as a text of social thought, not a natural science monograph.

Can this book be read without a sociology background?

It can be read, but it requires some patience. The book discusses issues such as social institutions, moral ideas, and the conditions for reform, and its language belongs to the discursive style of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It is advisable to read the introduction first or learn the background of writing, then proceed chapter by chapter, maintaining critical distance from era-bound expressions.

Are the views in the book still applicable today?

The awareness of the question of how the environment shapes moral conditions remains illuminating, but specific judgments are limited by the social thought and materials of the time and cannot be directly equated with contemporary conclusions. It is advisable to read it as material for intellectual history, focusing on its way of posing questions and its argumentative structure rather than copying its conclusions.

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About the author

Wallace, Alfred Russel, 1823-1913 Author

Alfred Russel Wallace (1823–1913) was an English naturalist, geographer and pioneer of evolutionary theory, who independently proposed the theory of natural selection in the same era as Darwin. He spent many years exploring the Malay Archipelago and the Amazon basin, collecting specimens and recording the distribution of animals and plants, from which he developed a deep understanding of speciation and geographical isolation. This library holds 16 of his works, including The Geographical Distribution of Animals, Contributions to the Theory of Natural Selection, The Malay Archipelago, Travels on the Amazon and Island Life. These range from systematic scientific treatises to accessible accounts of his travels. His writing draws on first-hand observation, argues rigorously, and combines the precision of natural history with the immediacy of travel literature, exerting a lasting influence on biogeography and the spread of evolutionary theory. Owing to the limits of available sources, his early life and education are covered only briefly here.