Herbert Spencer

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Herbert Spencer

• By Alex Cook and Jordan Fish

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A Little History

• Born on April 27, 1820 in Derby, Britain
• He was the oldest of 9 kids.
• Parents name, George and Harriet Spencer.
• Herbert was sick as a child so he was home
  schooled, his dad taught him.
• At age 13 he got a better education when his
  uncle started to teach him.

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Continued

• Spencer has published several articles in the
  radical press.
• The Leader - 1848
• The Fortnightly 1848
• The Westminster Review -1848
• He started with engineering topics then he got
  into social/political topics.
• He became an author in philosophy, he was a
  popular author. Lots had loved him.
• He talked about agnosticism

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Continued

• Toward the end of his life Spencer refused nearly
  all honors offered to him by universities, the
  government, and scientific bodies.
• He had no university degree
• The last year of his life he did what he could
  for writing. He wrote a variety of controversial
  issues of the day from opposition to the Boi War.
• Died on December 8th 1903 at the age of 83, he
  was cremated.

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Theories

• Differences between society and organism
• -Parts of organism form a concrete whole parts
  of society are free and more or less dispersed
• -Parts of organism exist for the benefit of the
  whole In society the whole exists merely for the
  benefit of the individual
• Social Static's He contends that society is
  completely determined by characters of individuals

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Continued

• Movement from simple to various levels of
  compound (complex) societies
• Simple Families
• Compound Families organized into clans
• Doubly Compound Clans organized into Tribes
• Trebly Compound Tribes into Nations

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Continued

• Social Darwinism - The theory of evolution that
  states that all plants and animals developed from
  earlier forms by changing and adapting to their
  environment.
• Spencer continued on this theory and added that
  they adapt to their environment to survive, known
  as the Survival of the Fittest.

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Books

• Social Statics 1851
• The Principles of Psychology 1855
• First Principles 1862
• The Principles of Sociology 1876-96
• The Study of Sociology 1880
• The Man versus the State 1884
• The Factors of Organic Evolution -1887
• The Principles of Biology 1894
• An Autobiography 1904

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His Theories Today

• He coined the phrase Survival of the Fittest
• Spencer helped gain acceptance of the theory of
  evolution.
• A Saying Everyman is free to do that which he
  wills, provided he infringes not equal freedom of
  any other man.
• The Principles of Ethics

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THE END