On Mr. Spencer's Formula of Evolution; As an Exhaustive Statement of the Changes of the Universe. Followed by a Resume of the Most Important Criticism of Spencer's "First Principles."
London, England: Trubner & Co., 1879. Presumed First Edition. Hardcover. xii, 267, [1] pages. Fold-out. Some cover wear and soiling. Some hinge weakness noted. Some pencil comments and underlining noted. Inscribed by the author on the title page to Mr. and Mrs H Guthrie [sp?], from the Author. Includes Introduction, as well as chapters on The Problem of Philosophy; An Inquiry to the Intelligibility and the Sufficiency of Mr. Spencer's Formula; An Inquiry as to the Intelligibility and the Sufficiency of Mr. Spencer's Formula, with the inclusion of the term "Force"; An attempt to Frame a Formula agreeable to Mr. Spencer's Exposition of Evolution, and an Inquiry as to its Intelligibility as the Formula of Philosophy; Criticism of the Book on "The Unknowable"; and The Foregoing as Affected by Mr. Spencer's "Replies to Criticism". Also contains an Appendix, as well as a General Summary. This work is an elaboration of papers read before the Literary and Philosophical Society of Liverpool, Sessions 1877-78 and 1878-79. The reference are to "First Principles'" third edition, October 1875. Herbert Spencer (27 April 1820 – 8 December 1903) was an English philosopher, biologist, anthropologist, and sociologist famous for his hypothesis of social Darwinism whereby superior physical force shapes history. Spencer originated the expression "survival of the fittest", which he coined in Principles of Biology (1864) after reading Charles Darwin's 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.
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." Spencer was "the single most famous European intellectual in the closing decades of the nineteenth century" but his influence declined sharply after 1900. Spencer first articulated his evolutionary perspective in his essay, 'Progress: Its Law and Cause', published in Chapman's Westminster Review in 1857, and which later formed the basis of the First Principles of a New System of Philosophy (1862). In it he expounded a theory of evolution which combined insights from Samuel Taylor Coleridge's essay 'The Theory of Life' – itself derivative from Friedrich von Schelling's Naturphilosophie – with a generalization of von Baer's law of embryological development. Spencer posited that all structures in the universe develop from a simple, undifferentiated, homogeneity to a complex, differentiated, heterogeneity, while being accompanied by a process of greater integration of the differentiated parts. This evolutionary process could be found at work, Spencer believed, throughout the cosmos. It was a universal law, that was applying to the stars and the galaxies as much as to biological organisms, and to human social organization as much as to the human mind. It differed from other scientific laws only by its greater generality, and the laws of the special sciences could be shown to be illustrations of this principle. Condition: Fair.
Keywords: Herbert Spencer, Evolution, Philosophy, Gravitation, Homogeneous, Matter, Motion, Force, Consciousness, Knowledge, Relativity, Dynamism, John Fiske, James Sully
[Book #81838]
Price: $275.00