Herbert Spencer
By Regan Smith
Spencer's Early Life
- Born April 27, 1820 in Derby, England
- Oldest of nine children- the only one to survive infancy
- He was a very sickly child, so he was homeschooled by his father whose unconventional beliefs lead to an informal and disorderly education
- His fathers career as a teacher put them in the lower class, but he went to live with his rich uncle at age 13
- He had many diverse interests and trained as a civil engineer for railways
- In his early 20s he started journaling and doing political writing
Spencer's Contributions
- Synthetic Philosophy: a combination of his view on biology, sociology, ethics and politics
- Put together ideas on natural and social sciences and organized them into his evolutionary theory
- Spencer's Evolutionary Theory: Societies, like organisms, start simple and advance over time
- Compared the systems of organisms and societies (see chart above)
- Coined the phrase "survival of the fittest" before it was used by Charles Darwin
- Helped advance the ideas of Social Darwinism with his thoughts on societies
- One of three sociologists to advance the Structural-Functional Perspective
- Structural-Functional Perspective: explains that society is made up of parts, each with their own function and if one is not working then they could all shut down