Spencer, Herbert

Spencer, Herbert (1820–1903), worked as a civil engineer for the London and Birmingham Railway Company until 1841, then turned his attention to philosophy and published Social Statics (1850) and Principles of Psychology (1855); in 1860, after reading C. Darwin, he announced a systematic series of treatises, to the elaboration of which he devoted the remainder of his life: First Principles (1862), Principles of Biology (1864–7), Principles of Sociology (1876–96), and Principles of Ethics (1876–93). His other works include an autobiography (1904).

Spencer was the founder of evolutionary philosophy, pursuing the unification of all knowledge on the basis of a single all-pervading principle, that of evolution, which he defines as follows: ‘an integration of matter and concomitant dissipation of emotion; during which matter passes from an indefinite incoherent homogeneity to a definite coherent heterogeneity; and during which the retained motion undergoes a parallel transformation’. The process continues until equilibrium is reached, after which the action of the environment will in time bring about disintegration.

This theory of a physical system leads up to Spencer's ethical system, where he is less successful in producing a consistent whole. He was essentially an individualist, and his first ethical principle is the equal right of every individual to act as he likes, so long as he does not interfere with the liberty of others. His effort is to reconcile utilitarian with evolutionary ethics, but he had to confess that for the purpose of deducing ethical principles ‘the Doctrine of Evolution has not furnished guidance to the extent that I had hoped’.

In a literary context Spencer is remembered for his friendship with G. Eliot, whom he met in 1851.