(1820-1903)

"Every man is free to do that

which he wills, provided he
infringes not the equal
freedom of any other man."

http://gerald-massey.org.uk/holyoake/images/herbert_spencer.jpg
 More works published:
• The social Organism (1860)
• First Principles (1862)
• Principles of Biology (1864-67)
• The study of sociology (1873)
• The principles of Ethics- many volumes (1870s)
• The Principles of Sociology- many volumes (1890s)
• The Man Versus the State (1884)
• Autobiography (1904)
 Survival of
The Fittest

 Coined the term, not Darwin

 Eliminates unfavorable variations of species
 Focused on both biological and social
processes
 Society is similar to an organism
 General law of organization: common to both
biological and social organism
 Utilitarianism

 Equal liberty principle

• Broadly utilitarianism view

• Goal of human action

 Rejects conventional Benthamite view of
public interest
 Absolute rights of individuals
Thomas Malthus

 An Essay on the Principles of Population

• Although his outlook on the problem of overpopulation
was not quite as pessimistic, Spencer believed that
overpopulation would lead to the “survival of the fittest”
 “Survival of the fittest” had two basic outcomes
1. The excess of fertility could stimulate greater activity
2. The conflict for scarcity of goods would accelerate into
political and territorial conflicts
 Biology

 Spencer wrote the first volume of the Principles of

Biology in 1864 and wrote the second in 1867
 He agreed with post-Newtonian views of science
• Universal laws exist that could explain the phenomena in
the world
 Proposed three propositions:
1. The law of persistence force
2. The indestructibility of matter
3. The continuity of motion
 Biology

 Spencer acknowledged the role of environmental

variables on social organization and agreed that the Super
Organic (society) and the Organism (body) had six
similarities:
1. Society and individuals grow
2. As size increases so does complexity
3. Progression in structure is accompanied by a differentiation in
function
4. Parts of the whole are interdependent of one another
5. Every organism is a society
6. Some parts die, and some parts go on.
 Charles Darwin

 Origin of Species in 1859 was welcomed

warmly by Spencer.
 Darwin’s theory of evolution offered Spencer a
respected intellectual tool for justifying his
laissez-faire beliefs.
 Darwin’s theory of evolution and Spencer’s
survival of the fittest concepts have become
mistakenly interchangeable.