Herbert Spencer

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[[File:Herbert Spencer.jpg|thumb|right|165px|Herbert Spencer, the social Darwinist who wasn't very Darwinian.]]{{evolution}}
{{cquote|But this survival of the fittest, implies multiplication of the fittest.|||Herbert Spencer, ''The Principles of Biology'', Vol. I}}
'''Herbert Spencer''' {{lived|1820|1903}} was a [[United Kingdom|British]] [[Philosophy|philosopher]], classical [[liberal]] political theorist, and polymath.  Often described as an [[agnostic]] or a [[Deist]], he took a stance of "agnostic realism" in which he believed a [[god]] exists but he is impossible to know.<ref>[http://atheism.about.com/od/aboutagnosticism/a/theism.htm Cline, Austin: Introduction to Agnosticism], Atheism.about.com</ref>

==Survival of the fittest==
The phrase "survival of the fittest", generally mis-attributed to [[Charles Darwin]], actually originated as a coining by Spencer in his 1864 book ''The Principles of Biology''. Darwin's preferred phrase for [[evolution]] by [[natural selection]] was "descent with modification". Darwin didn't include the words "survival of the fittest" in ''[[On the Origin of Species]]'' until the fifth edition (1869) and attributed them to Spencer himself.<ref>
[http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/340400.html "Survival of the Fittest"], The Phrase Finder: "This expression is often attributed to Charles Darwin and, although it appears in the fifth edition of his ''Origin of Species'', 1869, it is there attributed to Herbert Spencer:

    'The expression often used by Mr. Herbert Spencer of the survival of the fittest is more accurate...'

</ref>

==Social Darwinism==
Spencer is considered one of the archetypical proponents of "[[social Darwinism]]," which demonstrates the problems with this appellation. Spencer indeed supported a [[laissez-faire]] ideology and sought to apply Darwin's ideas to the social realm, but radically altered them in the process. For one, Darwin was opposed to a [[teleology|teleological]] view of evolution while Spencer believed that humanity could be made to evolve toward a "perfect" state. The idea of a "perfect man in a perfect society" featured prominently in his writing.<ref>Mario J. Rizzo. [http://www.gmu.edu/depts/rae/archives/VOL12_2_1999/rizzo.pdf The Coming Slavery: The Determinism of Herbert Spencer.] ''Review of Austrian Economics'', 12: 115–130 (1999)</ref><ref>Robert M. Young. [http://human-nature.com/rmyoung/papers/paper84h.html Herbert Spencer and "Inevitable Progress."] ''Human Nature Review'', paper 84</ref><ref>Robert M. Young. [http://human-nature.com/rmyoung/papers/spencer1.html The Development of Herbert Spencer's Concept of Evolution], in ''Actes du XIe Congrès International d'Histoire des Sciences''. Warsaw: Ossolineum, 1967, vol. 2, pp. 273-78</ref> Spencer's conception of evolution was as much [[Lamarckism|Lamarckian]] as it was Darwinian, if not more so. His notion of evolutionary progress was dependent on the accumulation of Lamarckian inheritance of acquired traits. ''Social Statics'', his first major work of social and political theory, was actually published in 1851, i.e., before Darwin's ''Origin''. He combined some of his earlier views of [[psychology]] drawn from [[phrenology]] (some of which he later dropped) and associationist psychology (a forerunner of Pavlovian conditioning and [[behaviorism]]) with evolutionary theory, especially Lamarckism.<ref>George Bion Denton. [http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/1413471 Early Psychological Theories of Herbert Spencer.] ''The American Journal of Psychology'',  Vol. 32, No. 1, Jan., 1921</ref> He also borrowed from [[Auguste Comte]]'s brand of [[positivism]]. The association of Herbert Spencer with social Darwinism is disputed and attributed to [[Richard Hofstadter]] and his 1944 book ''Social Darwinism in American Thought''.<ref>[http://reason.com/archives/2008/07/29/the-unfortunate-case-of-herber Root, Damon: The Unfortunate Case of Herbert Spencer], ''Reason'', July 29, 2008.</ref>

==Political views and influence==
===Radicalism===
Spencer's early opposition to private property in land, expressed in the chapter "The Right to the Use of the Earth"<ref>[http://www.grundskyld.dk/22-Chapter09.html Spencer, Herbert: The Right to the Use of the Earth]</ref> which was deleted from later editions of ''Social Statics'', made his early work popular among [[Georgism|Georgists]], and Spencer himself expressed sympathy for Henry George's ideas.  His essay "The Right to Ignore the State"<ref>[http://www.constitution.org/hs/ignore_state.htm Spencer, Herbert: The Right to Ignore the State]</ref> likewise remains popular among [[anarchism|anarchists]] and [[libertarianism|libertarians]].  ''Social Statics'' also held that human society would eventually learn to function and coexist on its own with a consequent "withering away" of the State.  Peter Kropotkin listed Spencer as one of many influences on [[anarchism]] in his entry on anarchism for the 1905 ''Encyclopedia Britannica'' while warning that Spencer's views on criminal justice and contract enforcement "[open] (in the present writer's opinion) the way for reconstituting under the heading of 'defence' all the functions of the state"<ref>[http://www.panarchy.org/kropotkin/1905.eng.html Kropotkin, Peter: Anarchism]</ref>. [[Marxist]] writer Paul Lafargue was less charitable, writing a juicy polemic denouncing Spencer's views as a bourgeois defense of [[capitalism]].<ref>[http://www.marxists.org/archive/lafargue/1884/06/herbert-spencer.htm Lafargue, Paul: A Few Words with Mr. Herbert Spencer]</ref>

===Conservatism===
His politics became more [[conservative]] as he aged. Initially a proponent of the [[feminism|women's liberation movement]], he turned against it later in his life as can be seen in his ongoing relationship with Marian Evans (George Eliot).<ref>Nancy L. Paxton. (1991) [http://press.princeton.edu/titles/4785.html ''George Eliot and Herbert Spencer: Feminism, Evolutionism, and the Reconstruction of Gender.]'' Princeton University Press</ref> 

===Anti-imperialism===
Spencer also happened to be an opponent of English [[imperialism]], including strong denunciations of the Second Afghan War and the [[Boer War]]<ref>Lynn Zastoupil. [http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=11942 Review of Schultz, Bart; Varouxakis, Georgios, eds., ''Utilitarianism and Empire''.] H-Albion, H-Net Reviews. July, 2006.</ref> and this remained the exception to his conservative drift as he remained opposed throughout his life.

===Laissez faire===
Based on his survival-of-the-fittest views, Spencer was one of the leading  proponents of [[laissez faire]] capitalism during the XIXth century.<ref>Spencer, Herbert THE MAN VERSUS THE STATE
With Six Essays on Government, Society, and Freedom. Indianapolis: LibertyClassics, 1981</ref>

==Evolutionary differentiation, psychology, and scientific racism==
Spencer's works were rife with the ideas of [[biological determinism]] popular during his day. He attacked the notion of [[free will]] in his 1855 work ''Principles of Psychology''.<ref>Julian C. Leslie. [http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1592350/ Herbert Spencer's Contributions to Behavior Analysis: A Retrospective Review of ''Principles of Psychology''.] J Exp Anal Behav. 2006 July; 86(1): 123–129.</ref> His writings were known as great "contributions" to the [[scientific racism]] of Victorian England. Spencer attempted to explain the inferiority of the "savage mind" through evolutionary and phrenological means by combining them with some armchair [[anthropology]].<ref>Graham Richards. [http://www.thepsychologist.org.uk/archive/archive_home.cfm?volumeID=23&editionID=195&ArticleID=1764 Loss of Innocence in the Torres Straits.] ''The Psychologist'', vol. 23, pt. 12, Dec. 2010</ref> The "Spencerian" view of evolution was teleological not only in relation to continuous progress, but differentiation and specialization. Thus, as the "savages" were "less evolved," so were their minds, which made them incapable of higher thought as their brains were less complex. He cited earlier "craniological" studies of skull size and capacity in support of this. These ideas greatly influenced the nascent [[eugenics]] movement.

==External links==
*[http://www.gutenberg.org/browse/authors/s#a1887 Herbert Spencer's works at Project Gutenberg]
*[http://www.victorianweb.org/philosophy/spencer/spencer.html Profile at Victorian Web]
*[http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/spencer/ Entry in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy]
*[http://www.iep.utm.edu/spencer/ Entry in the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy]
*Brian Holmes. [http://www.ibe.unesco.org/fileadmin/user_upload/archive/publications/ThinkersPdf/spencere.pdf Herbert Spencer (1820-1903).] ''Prospects: The Quarterly Review of Comparative Education'', vol.24, no.3/4, 1994, p. 533–54.

==References==
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Categories: Biologists, British people, classical liberalism, Deists, Liberals, Libertarianism, Philosophers, Philosophy of science, Racists, Sociologists