Herbert Spencer was born April 27, 1820, in Derby, England. His father was a schoolmaster, and both his parents were "dissenters" (i.e. religious non-conformists).  Spencer was clearly gifted and was mostly self-educated.

An excellent writer, he wrote articles on social issues for various magazines of the day and even became editor of The Economist for several years.  In 1855, he published The Principles of Psychology. This became part of a series of books, which he called The Synthetic Philosophy, and included biology and sociology as well as psychology.

Originally believing in the inheritance of acquired characteristics (Lamarckianism), he became a follower of Darwin's theory.  It was, in fact, Spencer who coined the phrase "survival of the fittest"  But he also transformed Darwin's theory into a social theory that encouraged extreme individualism and laissez-faire economic policies, called Social Darwinism.

Basically, survival of the fittest was to apply to people competing against people as well, and he implied that it was something of a social duty to accept the fact that some would be rich and some poor -- and that the consequences of poverty should not be interfered with.  Even whole societies -- such as England -- were engaged in a struggle for survival that did not allow for weakness of will or sentimentality.

Social Darwinism is not something Darwin would have approved of.  It has in it the fallacy of false analogy:  Human society is not a neat parallel to the non-human biological world.  Unfortunately, Social Darwinism seems to be here to stay, and can be found within  Fascist, Conservative, and Libertarian political agendas, and in personal philosophies such as that of Ayn Rand.

Spencer is, nevertheless, considered one of the great productive thinkers of his day.  He died Dec. 8, 1903, in Brighton, Sussex.

© Copyright 2000, Dr. C. George Boeree

(A major resource for Darwin's biography was the 11th edition (1910/1911) of the Encyclopedia Britannica, available online here)