Benjamin Kidd

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Benjamin Kidd (1858- ? ) was an English sociologist. He entered the British civil service and did not become generally known until the publication of a brilliant essay, Social Evolution, in 1894. This work passed through several editions and was translated into German (1895), Swedish (1895), French (1896), Russian (1897), Italian (1898), Chinese (1899), Czech (1900), Danish (1900), and Arabic (1913). The main theme of Social Evolution is the conflict between private interest and social welfare, the struggle which eliminates the unfit being the condition of progress. Kidd held that society should be interpreted in terms of biology.[1]

[edit] Works

  • Control of the Tropics (1898)
  • Principles of Western Civilization (1902; Spanish translation, 1903)
  • Herbert Spencer and After (1908)
  • Two Principal Laws of Sociology (1909)

This article incorporates text from an edition of the New International Encyclopedia that is in the public domain.