Bio: (1831-1903). German economist and sociologist. Schaffle studied at the University of Tübingen and later became the chair of political economy at this university.

His sociology was influenced by Comte and Spencer, and in his book Bau und Leben des Sozialen Körpers, 4 vols. (1875–1878) he argues that society, or the social body, is analogous in its structure, life, and organization to a biological body. Societies, according to him, should be studied holistically, as they are in a state of complex equilibrium of forces. In his books Quintessence of Socialism (1875) and The Impossibility of Social Democracy (1885), Schäffle puts forward a negative critique of socialism. On the one hand, socialism doesn’t give enough economic incentives, while on the other hand, it is incompatible with democracy. In his last book, Outline of Sociology, 1906, Schäffle stopped using biological analogies. 

Main works

Die nationalökonomische Theorie der ausschließenden Absatzverhältnisse (1867);

Kapitalismus und Sozialismus (1870);

Bau und Leben des Sozialen Körpers (1875–78);

Quintessence of Socialism (1875);

Grundsätze der Steuerpolitik (1880);

The Impossibility of Social Democracy (1885);

Outline of Sociology (1906).