SPENCER, HERBERT, an English philosopher; born in Derby, England, April 27, 1820. His father was a schoolmaster in that town. At the age of 17 he entered on the pro fession of a railway engineer, in Lon don; but about eight years after ward he gave up this profession, which lacked interest for him. He had al ready contributed various papers to the "Civil Engineers' and Architects' Jour nal"; and in the later half of 1842 he wrote a series of letters to the "Non conformist" newspaper on "The Proper Sphere of Government," which were re published in pamphlet form in 1843. These letters imply a belief in human progress based on the modifiability of human nature through adaptation to its social surroundings, and maintain the tendency of these social arrangements "of themselves to assume a condition of stable equilibrium." From 1848 to 1853 he was sub-editor of the "Economist" newspaper; and at this time he developed the ethical and political consequences of the ideas he had already enunciated, and sought an independent basis for them. Hence his first important work, "Social Statics" (1850; abridged and revised, 1892). It is thus noticeable that Spencer's philo sophical activity began with ethical and social questions. The conception of the evolution of man and society as deter mined by circumstances, and the idea that organic and social evolutions are under the same law, preceded the elab oration of those scientific ideas which in the complete "System of Philosophy" are made to serve as their basis. It was gradually developed and applied by him in a series of articles contributed in the following years to reviews.
In these essays the doctrine of evolu tion began to take definite form, and to be applied to various departments of in quiry. The publication of Darwin's "Origin of Species," in 1859, gave a wide basis of scientific proof for what had hitherto been matter of speculation, and first showed the important part played by natural selection in the development of organisms.
As early as 1860 he had announced the issue of a "System of Synthetic Philos ophy," already in course of preparation, which, beginning with the first princi ples of all knowledge. proposed to trace
how the law of evolution was gradually realized in life, mind, society, and morality. In pursuance of this compre hensive design Spencer published "First Principles" (1862) ; "Principles of Biology" (2 vols. 1864-1867) ; "Princi ples of Psychology" (2d ed. 2 vols. 1870 1872) ; "Principles of Sociology" (3 vols. 1876-1896) ; "Principles of Ethics" (2 vols. 1879).
The method of his "System" is deduc tive; though the deductions, large and small, are always accompanied by in ductive verifications.
Metaphysically Spencer's system is founded on the doctrine of relativity de duced by Hamilton and Mansel from Kant, but carried by him, as he says, a step further. Along with the definite consciousness of things known in rela tion to one another there is implied an indefinite consciousness of an absolute existence, in the recogniticn of which as inscrutable science and religion find their reconciliation.
The principles of morality are looked on by Spencer as the copestone of his system, all his other investigations being only preliminary to them. Ethics, he holds, has its root in physical, bio logical, psychological, and social phe nomena, for by them the conditions of human activity are prescribed and sup plied. The best conduct is that which most fully realizes evolution—which promotes the greatest totality of life in self, offspring, and the race—the balance of egoism and altruism being attained by a compromise between these contend ing principles. The measure of life is Said to be pleasure, but the Utilitarian school is at fault in assuming that the end (greatest happiness) is better known than the means to it (morality) ; and in ignoring the fact that accumu lated experiences of utility have become consolidated in the superior races into a moral sense.
Modern scientists are generally dis posed to regard Spencer as out-of-date, but it should be remembered that he deeply influenced contemporary specula tion and was one of the few modern thinkers who carried out the attempt to give a systematic account of the universe in its totality. He died December 8, 1903.