Illustrations of Universal Progress; a Series of Discussions. With a Notice of Spencer's New System of Philosophy

by Herbert Spencer

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498 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1865

About the author

Herbert Spencer was an English philosopher, biologist, anthropologist, sociologist, and prominent classical liberal political theorist of the Victorian era.

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. He was "an enthusiastic exponent of evolution" and even "wrote about evolution before Darwin did." As a polymath, he contributed to a wide range of subjects, including ethics, religion, anthropology, economics, political theory, philosophy, literature, 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; "Who now reads Spencer?" asked Talcott Parsons in 1937.

Spencer is best known for coining the expression "survival of the fittest", which he did in Principles of Biology (1864), after reading Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species. This term strongly suggests natural selection, yet as Spencer extended evolution into realms of sociology and ethics, he also made use of Lamarckism.

Reviews

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was another book I found in a used bookstore on one of the forgotten bottom shelves of the philosophy section. It was a first edition (1864) in great condition for only $16! I first came across Spencer’s name while first devouring one of my all-time favorite books by Jack London, “Martin Eden”…(M.E.). In it, a sailor turned autodidact begins to slurp Spencer after he experienced an awakening sitting awestruck while a crude savant slathered his treasures of Spencerian sophistry over his comrades inside a shady bar. Martin Eden later reads Spencer for himself and views all things in his life differently, especially the mundane:

“In the meat on his platter, he saw the shining sun and traced its energy back through all its transformations to its source a hundred million miles away, or traced its energy ahead to all the moving muscles in his arms that enable him to cut the meat, and the brain wherewith he will the muscles to move to cut the meat, until, with inward gaze, he saw the same sun shining in his brain…All things were related to all other things from the furthermost star in the wastes of space to the myriads of atoms in the grain of sand under one’s foot.”

I was intrigued by how London described Spencer’s writings as a comprehensive philosophy of the universe’s connectedness. I've since learned that Spencer was a philosopher and evolutionary thinker contemporary with Darwin, and actually started writing on biological evolution before Darwin. It was Spencer who actually coined the phrase, “survival of the fittest” to describe the evolutionary process of natural selection adduced by Darwin. He also helped to advance the Nebular hypothesis which theorized the formation of planets from star debris, which we are all now familiar with. Even more significant, Spencer was a genius in scientific philosophy, which means he not only observed and recorded phenomena , but also constellated his findings into a progressive model to explain ‘the universe and everything in it’, and much of his theories are still valid in our day. I think it is most notable that he didn’t lose the bigger picture in the details, as many other scientists before and after. But nothing comes without a cost: Spencer’s intense study and writing had debilitated him by his early thirties, to the point where he had to take significant doses of opium to get to sleep every night! Yum. In the end, he said his learning was worth the suffering. And, heck, I might just agree…seein’ as I get to benefit from his brilliance, and seein’ as I don’t get migraines every time someone turns the light on.

This book is a collection of essays, which act as a nice introduction to his larger works. The chapters I felt were the most impressive: “Progress: its law and cause”, “Manners and Fashion”, “The Origin and Function of Music”, “Use and Beauty”, “Sources of Architectural Types”, and “The Use of Anthropomorphism”. He asserts in the former that what we call progress is simply the increasing complexity of form and function—from homogeneity of all parts, towards heterogeneity (which ultimately collapses back to homogeny). He used this principle to trace complex changes back to their source, and with it he advanced many theories in the areas of cosmology, geology, biology, sociology, and language. His chronological demonstration of historical/scientific progress was truly captivating, in particular his sketch of language development, which, interestingly enough, he traces all language back to politico-religious decorations of ancient temples and palaces! What?!! The predominantly religious root of all government and science is truly illuminating, and surprising actually, as Spencer describes it.

In the other chapters he basically applies his formula of progress to trace the evolution music, fashion and etiquette, laughter, religious symbols, and beauty to their respective, and somewhat ironic, sources. I felt like I was learning these ideas as fresh as if they had first been uttered, even though I’m sure other scholars since Spencer has rehashed all of this in dissertations ad nauseam. Yet, there’s something vital you receive when reading from original sources, the ‘first thoughts’ on a subject, that makes those ideas more precious because of the earthy process through which those ideas are generated, experienced and communicated. Somebody asked me the other day why I like reading out of old books. Well, for the same reason we like any antique…we like to feel closer to other times, other cultures, other ideas that shaped the world we now know. Understanding the process that gave birth to our current situation becomes every bit as important as considering the product alone. I suppose that is the reason Spencer’s writings appeal to me a century later. He, too, found the study of origins to be significant because they provided clues to the hidden correlation and interrelation of all things in our present world, and a ‘bigger picture’ might help us to find the solution to some of the dilemmas we tend to think ‘have nothing to do with anything’.

The essays I read were amazing, and without feeling the need to witness him belabor his theories more in his longer works, I feel like I’ve had a stimulating plunge into Spencerian ideology.