Why did Matthew Arnold see the Philistines as especially important to England’s future?

In his seminal work Culture and Anarchy, Matthew Arnold identified the Philistines—the Victorian commercial middle class—as the most influential segment of English society.123

Arnold viewed them as the key to England’s future because their collective strength was synonymous with the nation’s strength, just as their inherent crudeness reflected the nation’s own limitations. While he acknowledged that the Philistines possessed significant energy and morality, he argued that they lacked "sweetness and light"—a deficiency in intellectual and artistic refinement.12

Because they held such a dominant position in society, Arnold believed that the nation’s progress depended on the effort to "educate and humanize" them. By transforming the Philistines through the study of culture, which he defined as "the study of perfection," he hoped to replace the prevailing social "anarchy" with a sense of direction guided by the nation’s "best self".12