Herbert Spencer (27 April 1820 - 8 December 1903) was an English philosopher. In his political writings, such as The Man Versus the State, Spencer proposed a radical classical liberal philosophy. It was Spencer, and not Darwin who coined the phrase "survival of the fittest", as well helping to popularise the term "evolution." Spencer is acknowledged as one of the founders of the science of sociology.
He was born in Derby. Educated mostly at home, Spencer worked first as a railways civil engineer beginning at age 16, writing in his spare time. In 1848, Spencer became a sub-editor on The Economist, then as now an important financial newspaper. He began writing books published by John Chapman, and then in 1851 joined the group around Chapman involved in reinvigorating the Westminster Review as a flagship of freethought and reform, spreading the ideas of evolutionism. Chapman asked Herbert Spencer to write about the divisive matter of the work of Thomas Malthus for the first issue, and Spencer's Theory of Population deduced from the General Law of Animal Fertility actually appeared in the second issue, supporting the painful Malthusian principle as both true and self-correcting.
From that time onwards, he was a professional writer. His Social Statics of 1851 introduced the phrase "survival of the fittest". In 1852 Spencer published The Developmental Hypothesis, and in 1855 produced Principles of Psychology. Spencer published a number of such works devoted to different domains, including Principles of Sociology and Principles of Ethics. They included, among other things, his ideas on evolution, which he saw as leading to an era of greater interpersonal cooperation. Spencer is seen by some as the originator of social darwinism and social evolutionism, although his theories were sharply at odds with some of what is commonly understood by that term. Where Spencer saw bottom up interpersonal cooperation leading to evolution, the theories of eugenicists and proto-eugenicists saw top down natural selection of man by man. Furthermore, Spencer's major works predated those of Charles Darwin. Spencer's book First Principles is an exposition of the evolutionary principles underlying all domains of reality, of which the most fundamental law is: "Evolution is an integration of matter and concomitant dissipation of motion; during which the matter passes from a relatively indefinite, incoherent homogeneity to a relatively definite, coherent heterogeneity and during which the retained motion undergoes a parallel transformation." Spencer points out that "the transformation is literally always towards greater complexity." Spencer did acknowledge Darwin's genius and originality so much that he attended the scientist's funeral in 1882 at Westminster Abbey, breaking his rule of never setting foot inside a church.
He is well known for his writings on what is commonly called the "law of equal liberty," which says that each individual should be allowed to do as he wills as long as he does not infringe on the same right of others. This is a basic tenet of libertarianism. As an extension of this reasoning, he says that individuals "are free to drop connection with the state - to relinquish its protection and to refuse paying toward its support" (The Right to Ignore the State).
Works
- Social Statics (1851)
- System of Synthetic Philosophy (1860)
- First Principles ISBN 0898757959 (1860)
- The Data of Ethics (1879)
- Education (1861)
- The Man Versus the State (1884)
- Autobiography (1904)
See also
- Cultural evolution
- Liberalism
- Contributions to liberal theory
- Libertarianism
- Mold of the Earth (a story by Boleslaw Prus, inspired by a concept of Spencer's).
External links
- "Herbert Spencer" at the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
- "First principles" Electronic Text Center, University of Virginia Library
- Extensive biography and overview of works
- Review materials for studying Herbert Spencer
- An article by Roderick Long purporting to vindicate Spencer.