The Principles of Ethics, Vol 2

by Herbert Spencer

Herbert Spencer (1820-1903) was an English philosopher, best known for his scientific writings. Together with Charles Darwin and Thomas Huxley he was responsible for the acceptance of the theory of evolution. His well-known essay on Intellectual, Moral and Physical was considered one of the most useful and profound books written on education. He projected a vast 10-volume work, Synthetic Philosophy, in which all phenomena are interpreted according to the principle of evolutionary progress. Although no longer influential in biology, his extension of his theory of evolution to psychology and sociology remains important. His "Social Darwinism" was particularly influential on early evolutionary economists such as Thorstein Veblen. As subeditor of the Economist (1843-53), Spencer was an influential exponent of laissez-faire. His early book Social Statics (1851) was strongly tinged with an individualistic outlook.

520 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1897

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

[Otto Lehto · Rating 4 out of 5]

An understudied, musty classic of ethical philosophy, with enough turgid prose to lose your mind. Despite its bad style (Spencer's essays were always better), and despite the mistaken Lamarckian assumptions, the overall framework is well worth studying. It is a precursor to sociobiology and even transhumanism. The biologistic view is simple, perhaps simplistic, but the core idea remains solid.

The second volume suffers from long-winded asides on everything from the follies of overdecorated household items to the public nuisance of bad street musicians.

Some of my favourite bits include: 1) the animal origins of ethical behaviour, 2) the evolutionary politics of adaptive human cooperation, 3) the pros and cons of land redistribution, 4) the virtues of public and private acts of charity and kindness, 5) the optimistic view of progressive altruism.

A highly important contribution to the study of evolutionary ethics and liberal (libertarian) political thought. Spencer's utopian and forward-looking system of "rational utilitarianism" deserves to be studied next to Bentham, Mill and Sidgwick.
If you have boots to wade through the muddy prose.