Herbert Spencer

Herbert Spencer (27 April 1820 – 8 December 1903) was an English philosopher, psychologist, biologist, anthropologist, and sociologist famous for his hypothesis of social Darwinism. Spencer originated the expression "survival of the fittest", which he coined in Principles of Biology (1864) after reading Charles Darwin's 1859 book On the Origin of Species. The term strongly suggests natural selection, yet Spencer saw evolution as extending into realms of sociology and ethics, so he also supported Lamarckism.[1][2]

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Herbert Spencer
Spencer at the age of 73
Born	(1820-04-27)27 April 1820 Derby, Derbyshire, England
Died	8 December 1903(1903-12-08) (aged 83) Brighton, Sussex, England
Notable work	Social Statics (1851) The Development Hypothesis (1852) First Principles (1860) The Principles of Psychology The Principles of Biology The Principles of Sociology The Principles of Ethics The Man Versus the State (1884)
Era	19th-century philosophy
Region	Western philosophy
School	Classical liberalism
Main interests	Anthropology · Biology · Evolution · Laissez-faire · Positivism · Psychology · Sociology · Utilitarianism
Notable ideas	Social Darwinism Survival of the fittest Social organism Law of equal liberty There is no alternative
Influences Aristotle Darwin Comte George Huxley Lamarck Lewes Mill
Influenced ʿAbduh Agarkar Assis Bennett Bergson Borges Cahan Darwin Durkheim Eliot Encina Freeman Hardy Hazlitt Herbert James Lawrence Le Bon London Nietzsche Nozick Pareto Prus Rand Rothbard Savarkar Sidgwick Sohō Sumner Tilak Tolstoy Westermarck Yan
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Spencer developed an all-embracing conception of evolution as the progressive development of the physical world, biological organisms, the human mind, and human culture and societies. As a polymath, he contributed to a wide range of subjects, including ethics, religion, anthropology, economics, political theory, philosophy, literature, astronomy, biology, sociology, and psychology. During his lifetime he achieved tremendous authority, mainly in English-speaking academia. "The only other English philosopher to have achieved anything like such widespread popularity was Bertrand Russell, and that was in the 20th century."[3] Spencer was "the single most famous European intellectual in the closing decades of the nineteenth century"[4][5] but his influence declined sharply after 1900: "Who now reads Spencer?" asked Talcott Parsons in 1937.[6]