Sociologist and philosopher, b. 27 April 1820 (Derby, England), d. 8 December 1903 (Brighton).
Herbert Spencer was the son of a schoolmaster. He was a gifted child, and his uncle, a church minister, offered to send him to Cambridge University. But Spencer's parents were of a dissenting branch of Christian faith, and he declined the offer. As a consequence he obtained most of is education through reading books, mainly on natural sciences.
After a brief period as a schoolteacher Spencer worked from 1837 to 1841 as a railroad engineer. His interest in social affairs led him to writing contributions to various progressive publications, among others to the organ of the Complete Suffrage Union The Pilot. In 1841 he became a subeditor of The Economist.
Around 1850 Spencer met Marian Evans, the author of psychoanalytical novels which she published under the pseudonym George Eliot. Through many philosophical conversations with her he developed his own philosophical standpoint and began to plan a major encyclopaedia, designed to be a synthesis of all knowledge of his time. He published the outline of his views in 1851 under the title Social Statics.
The first part of his planned work, The Principles of Psychology, appeared in 1855. In 1860 Spencer issued a prospectus and solicited subscriptions to The Synthetic Philosophy, an opus that was to include the already published Principles of Psychology as well as volumes on biology, sociology and morality. His work appeared in several volumes between 1862 and 1896. After his death in 1903 a board of trustees established in accordance with his will oversaw the publication of further work under the title Descriptive Sociology in 19 parts, completed in 1934.
Spencer combined the scientific approach to the world with the philosophy of unlimited individualism characteristic for early capitalism. He regarded philosophy as the synthesis of all sciences and the replacement of religion and saw the history of human societies as a development from military and industrial societies. In military societies order is achieved through despotism, which is morally repugnant. In industrial societies, on the other hand, order is not planned but establishes itself through the delicate adjustment of the needs of all individuals, which is civilized and looked upon favourably from the moral point of view.
Spencer was an early advocate of the evolution of species, which he initially explained as the consequence of inheritance of acquired traits. After the publication of Darwin's Origin of Species Spencer accepted Darwin's explanation of natural selection and coined the phrase "survival of the fittest."
Spencer tried to apply the concept of evolution to society. He developed an analogy between animal organisms with human societies:
| function | animal organism | human society |
| regulative system | central nervous system | government |
| sustaining system | alimentation | industry |
| distribution system | veins and arteries | roads, telegraphs etc |
The difference between the two structures according to Spencer is how coordination and collaboration between their parts is achieved. In the animal organism consciousness exists that relates to the organic whole; in human societies consciousness resides in each individual only.
Spencer was an influential thinker in Victorian England. His emphasis on the positive role of individualism has led historians to paint him as the exponent of early capitalist optimism; but Spencer did not see it in quite the same way. In his view society would have to go through a period of socialism and war before individualism can achieve its supreme position.
Acton, H. B. (1995) Herbert Spencer. Encyclopaedia Britannica 15th ed.