HERBERT SPENCER 1820–1903
Herbert Spencer was born at 12 Exeter Road, Derby, on 27 April 1820, the son of the headmaster of a small private school. He(1851), in which he explained that he wanted to “articulate the basic unifying principles of social, political and moral science”. Spencer believed that he could bring all of biology and economics into a system that would describe natural laws. He coined the term ‘survival of the fittest’ to describe what came to be called ‘social Darwinism’: the application of Charles Darwin’s pioneering study of the natural world to economics. Spencer’s commitment to competition in industry led him to believe that the Victorian philosophy of laissez-faire, or freedom for business to do what it pleased, was a law of nature. He therefore opposed the socialist beliefs about a planned economy that were gaining ground at the time. Although a resistance to putting any of his ideas to systematic test undermined any claims he had to be scientific, they proved to be highly influential in both Britain and the USA. Spencer was a hypochondriac ravaged by fears of illness, but lived to 83. He died in his house at 5 Percival Terrace, Brighton, on 8 December 1903.
