Justine Henri A.

Hernandez
30, 2014
4PHL

September
PHL 306

Planet of Life:
Understood Through the Mind of Herbert Spencer
I.

Introduction
In the movie, Planet of Life, the documentary showed how man

supposedly evolved from a primal creature, which is an ape, into generally a

thinking subject which is man, himself. The movie suggested that from being
an ape, it or he or whatever should be properly used, was forced to adapt to
the sudden changes brought about by an accident of geology which is
responsible for changing the landscape where they live from a rainforest,
where they travel by climbing trees and survive by eating fruits that they see
basically everywhere, into a Savannah where food is scarce and threats and
danger are everywhere and thus, from being an ape, it or he, became a man
by necessity. The situation force them to adapt, to evolve, it was adapt or
die.
This paper will try to emulate the way of thinking and understanding of
Herbert Spencer, his view and knowledge on sociology and social philosophy,
in order to produce an analytic paper that will attempt to examine,
understand and ultimately make a conclusion regarding the theory of
evolution, by Charles Darwin, shown in the documentary film.

II.

Body
First and foremost, it is necessary to study the circumstances the

primal man, which is actually and basically an ape, a man like ape, had to
endure during his time to understand fully the changes he went through
during his life time and thus, this paper would first try to give a summary
regarding the content of the documentary film in order to be able to discuss
the process of evolution with detail and ultimately see all of it through
Herbert Spencer and his philosophy.
The theory of Charles Darwin, Origin of Species, during the 19th century
was considered a scandal and it seduced criticisms and issues from various
group of people during his time, it is only in the latter period where people
will start objectively seeing and understanding the genius behind his work
and the same event will also be the start of research and further studies
regarding his theory and it eventually resulted to geologists finding
evidences to support their stakes and claims regarding the said theory. The
evidences found around specific countries would suggest and show that
there were certain stages concerning the evolution of man from apes, further
strengthening the claim that the evolution did not come or happen suddenly
nor without any necessary or sensible reasons as others would suggest.
An elaboration of the stages will be presented here, not all stages of
evolution but only the ones shown in the documentary film, in brief, to show
how and why these specific evolutions came to be: The first and second
stages, Java Erectus man like ape and the Peking Man, were both largely

more like an ape than man, in appearance, habits and thinking, as the two
walked on all four limbs which is basically how monkeys walk.

The third

would be Lucy, the innovator of the 1st stage of evolution, started the
evolution of mankind by being able to walk on two feet, bipedalism, although
the way they walk is more like trained chimpanzees. The fourth will be the
Robust Man, first to make and use crude tools and weapons, whose bone and
muscle structure in their hands is generally different from the first three and
this change happened because of the necessity of life, they had to start
picking up things in the desert because food was scarce and they needed to
make tools to defend themselves in the Savannah where predators lurks in
every corner. The fifth and final stage shown in the film would be Homo
Erectus, the first ones that are capable of speech because they are now able
to walk erectly and thus their larynx opened up and as a result, they are able
to produce simple sounds that they probably used to communicate and they
are also the smartest because it is theorized the because of the change that
happened in their environment the nutrients of their food was gathered and
stacked in foods that are few.
Herbert Spencer would interpret the movie, the evolution of man, as
something that is a result of a need within the lives of the primal apes or
primal man continued to the next generation by genetic inheritance that
would serve as their foundation for a priori knowledge. The primal men were
forced by nature and circumstances to adapt and evolved out of a necessity
so they can survive and this for Spencer would be an event that will lead to

the betterment of their lives. Unlike the scholastics, who see and understand
that simpler object or creatures are better, Spencer understand that the
more complex things are, the more developed and more evolved they are
and ultimately the better.
To understand better the mind of Spencer on the matter, it would be
wise to see it against something similar and at the same time contrasting
theory, which would be that of Darwin, not to draw conclusion from it, but
rather to view the objective difference between the two. If Darwin saw the
evolution of man as a naturalist and geologist, Spencer saw the evolution of
man as a sociologist and as a social philosopher. As a sociologist, Spencer
saw that as a result of the circumstances where they lived, Savannah, where
nature and man himself is out to get everybody else, either for food or
protection, individuals have to adapt or die trying. Their way of thinking and
living was forced to evolve from living a happy go lucky life into that which is
aware of his surroundings and his needs, they now have to think of how to
defend themselves and how to survive and these practices and way of
thinking became habits overtime which would then be hereditary to the next
generation. Habits produce hereditary changes, which is evolution.

Men

during those time, by experience, grew and evolved, out of necessity, from
simple and homogenous existence into a complex and heterogeneous
existence which was then passed down unto the next generation. This can
be likened to his example of the giraffes from the contemporary period that
are supposed to have originated from the Lamarckians. Man would first need

to experience the change within his environment and he will then evolve
accordingly in order to survive.

III.

Conclusion
Herbert Spencer, being a sociologist and a philosopher, believed that

man and his evolution is not a simple fact of evidences. Evolution is a change
that is synthetically transformative within the individual. He is not only being
transformed by his environment, he is also evolving by way of genetic
inheritance from his ancestors.
Man having the necessity to adapt to his needs, be it physical,
intellectual or social, became more and more complex, towards completion
and perfection of himself, evolved to what he needs to be and resulted to a
better version of himself that would also be engraved in his genetics and
would be inherited by the next generation. This evolution for Spencer,
produced an elimination of the inferior traits of the person in order to
become more complex, more definitive and ultimately to become better.
Within himself, within the primal man, there exists an interior change that
forced the aggregates of man to be cleaved and be distributed to specific
parts or places where it is necessary to form something that is more definite,
more unique compared to what he has prior to this chain of events that led
him to evolve for his betterment. The disorganization of the aggregates of
the parts of man was not to produce chaos within, but is a result of a
necessity that will lead to redistributions that will not stop until the goal or

the achievement of his synthetic philosophy is absolutized and this should be

happen in every aspect and facet of man.
In short, for Spencer, evolution is not just a result of the current
environment of an individual, rather, it is a fusion by the present experiences
within his environment and a product of countless of habits being formed by
his ancestors, which will be inherited by current generation and would serve
as the foundation of their a priori knowledge. Man, therefore, is not limited to
his present or contemporary environment and predicaments, but he is also
developed and shaped by his ancestors, their practices and their needs.