Spencer, Herbert (1820–1903)
English philosopher, social theorist, and early evolutionist, who coined
the phrase "survival of the fittest" and robustly defended the notion of
evolution, both in terrestrial biology and the universe at large. In his
multivolume System of Synthetic Philosophy (1862–96), he
expoundd a world view based on a close study of physical, biological, and
social phenomena, arguing that species evolve by a process of differentiation
from the simple to the complex. He maintained that some unknown (and unknowable)
force generated order from chaos and drove the development of higher forms
from lower ones. His beliefs overlapped with those of Friedrich Engels and
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin and are most
dissimilar to those held today by supporters of complexity theory. His political
individualism deeply influenced American social thinking.
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