Herbert Spencer

Herbert Spencer (27 April 1820 – 8 December 1903) is an English philosopher, biologist, sociologist, and prominent classical liberal political theorist of the Victorian era.

Spencer develops 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 contributes to a wide range of subjects, including ethics, religion, anthropology, economics, political theory, philosophy, biology, sociology, and psychology.

During his lifetime, he achieves tremendous authority, mainly in English-speaking academia.

Spencer is best known for coining the concept "survival of the fittest", which he does in Principles of Biology (1864), after reading Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species.

This term strongly suggests natural selection, yet as Spencer extends evolution into realms of sociology and ethics, he also makes use of Lamarckism.

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