Spencer
Spencer names 6 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below.
Spencer HERBERT how the law of evolution was gradually realized in life
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
HERBERT how the law of evolution was gradually realized in life, mind, society, and morality. In pursuance of this comprehensive design Spencer published "First Principles" (1862); "Principles of Biology" (2 vols. 1864-1867); "Principles 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 deductive; though the deductions, small, are always accompanied by inductive verifications. Metaphysically Spencer's system is founded on the doctrine of relativity deduced 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 relation to one another there is implied an indefinite consciousness of an absolute existence, in the recognition 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, biological, psychological, and nomena, for by them the conditions of human activity are prescribed and supplied. 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 contending 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 accumulated experiences of utility have become consolidated in the superior races into a moral sense. Modern scientists are generally disposed to regard Spencer as out-of-date, but it should be remembered that he deeply influenced contemporary speculation and was one of the few modern thinkers who carried out the attempt to give a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.
Spencer spen'ser, Herbert
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
spen'ser, Herbert, an English philosopher. He was born at Derby, April 27, 1820, and died at Brighton, December 8, 1903. His father was a schoolmaster and philosopher. Young Herbert was educated by his father and by an uncle. He was not sent to college. At the age of seventeen he was apprenticed to a civil engineer. He spent eleven years of his life in laying out and building railroads. During this time he contributed articles to the Civil Engineers' and Architects' Journal; also a series of letters to the Non-Conformist on the proper spirit of government. He appears to have been quite dissatisfied with both church and state. He contemplated migrating to some new country, where a more natural state of affairs prevailed. With this end in view, he studied the natural resources of New Zealand . He engaged in journalism and in writing philosophical works instead, and did not carry out his half-formed purpose. As a thinker and writer, Spencer belongs to the illustrious group in which Darwin and Huxley are found. His Principles of Psychology, based on evolutionary principles, appeared four years before Darwin's Origin of Species. While a mere lad reciting physics to an uncle, he had protested against the theory then prevalent that inertia was a live force inherent in matter. Spencer's works include Social Statics, The Study of Sociology, etc. In 1860 he announced a series of volumes to constitute a system of synthetic philosophy, but died before he had completed his work. Among his best known essays is that on education, in which he takes strong ground in favor of history, science, and industrial work, as well as the study of languages. See New Zealand ; Huxley ; Socialism
Spencer HERBERT published in pamphlet form in 1843
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
HERBERT published in pamphlet form in 1843. belief in human These letters imply a modifiability of progress based on the adaptation to its human nature through HERBERT SPENCER social surroundings, and maintain the arrangements tendency of these social assume a condition of "of themselves to stable equilibrium." From 1848 to 1853 he was sub-editor of the "Economist" newspaper; and at developed the ethical and this time he the ideas he political consequences of enunciated, and sought an had already them. Hence his independent basis for "Social Statics" first important work, revised, 1892). It (1850; abridged and Spencer's philois thus noticeable that with ethical and sophical activity began conception of the social questions. The society as deterevolution of man and and the idea mined by circumstances, and social evolutions are that organic preceded the elabunder the same law, ideas which in oration of those scientific Philosophy" the complete "System of as their basis. It was are made to serve gradually developed and applied by him contributed in the in a series of articles following years to reviews. In these essays the doctrine of evolu- , and to tion began to take definite form departments of inbe applied to various of Darwin's quiry. The publication , gave a wide "Origin of Species," in 1859 for what had basis of scientific proof speculation, and hitherto been matter of part played first showed the important in the development by natural selection of organisms. As early as 1860 he had announced the Philosissue of a "System of Synthetic of preparation, ophy," already in course first princiwhich, beginning with the to trace ples of all knowledge, proposed
Spencer HERBERT, an English
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
HERBERT, an English , England philosopher; born in Derby , His father was a April 27, 1820. schoolmaster in that town. At the the proage of 17 he entered on , in Lonfession of a railway engineer years afterdon; but about eight this profession, which ward he gave up him. He had allacked interest for papers to the ready contributed various Architects' Jour- "Civil Engineers' and of 1842 he nal"; and in the later half to the "Nonwrote a series of letters The Proper conformist" newspaper on "
Spencer a town in Worcester co.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a town in Worcester co., and Albany rail- Mass.; on the Boston Worcester. It road; d; 11 miles S. W. of Richard Sugden Public Licontains the High School, brary, the David Prouty railroad and a National bank, street a number of electric light plants, and It has manufacweekly newspapers. tories of wire, boots, brass goods, shoes, . (1910) 6,740; and woolen goods. Pop (1920) 5,930.
Spencer SELDEN PALMER, a United States Senator from Missouri
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
SELDEN PALMER, a United States Senator from Missouri, born in Erie, Pa., in 1862. He graduated from Yale in 1884, and from the law department of Washington University in 1886. He engaged in the practice of law in St. Louis in the same year. He served as a member of the State House of Representatives in 1895-1896, and as
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Collier's in 1921 already conceded that "modern scientists are generally disposed to regard Spencer as out-of-date," and the century since has deepened that judgement rather than reversed it. The biological core of his ethics — the claim that "accumulated experiences of utility have become consolidated in the superior races into a moral sense" — depends on the inheritance of acquired characteristics, which Mendelian genetics and the mid-century evolutionary synthesis ruled out. Spencer, who coined "survival of the fittest" in 1864, was afterwards firmly attached to the label "social Darwinism," above all by Richard Hofstadter's Social Darwinism in American Thought (1944), and the vast Synthetic Philosophy that made him the most widely read philosopher of the 1870s is now scarcely opened outside history-of-ideas courses. A smaller counter-current survives: his anti-statist essays, especially The Man versus the State (1884), are still reprinted and cited by libertarian writers.
Written for this edition, 2026.