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Herbert Spencer (1820-1903)

Publications | Portraits

Portrait of Herbert Spencer

Herbert Spencer was best known in the nineteenth century as a philosopher and social theorist. He is now remembered for his key role in the development of concepts of social Darwinism and as the originator of the term “survival of the fittest” (which Darwin first included in the fifth edition of On the Origin of Species). Between 1851 and 1859, Herbert Spencer published a series of important papers that dealt directly with evolution per se – as well as its extension to all other things. They remain a most enjoyable set of readings: Lyell and Owen on Development (1851), The Development Hypothesis (1852), Progress: Its Law and Cause (1857), Owen on the Homologies of the Vertebrate Skeleton (1858), and Illogical Geology (1859). Herbert Spencer’s book Principles of Psychology (1855, read the first edition here) appears to be the first serious attempt to address the evolutionary underpinnings of mental properties.

For a concise review of Herbert Spencer’s evolutionary views, see P. J. Bowler’s Evolution, The History of an Idea (third edition) pages 220 – 223.

Herbert Spencer’s concise and memorable response to creationist attacks on evolutionary facts and theory from his 1852 paper published in The Leader.

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Weld Hill Research Building at the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University and the home of the Friedman Lab

The Friedman Lab

Evolutionary History and
Plant Development

Department of Organismic
and Evolutionary Biology
Arnold Arboretum
Harvard University
1300 Centre Street
Boston, MA 02131

Principal Investigator

Dr. William (Ned) Friedman
Director of the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University
Arnold Professor of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology
Faculty Fellow of the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University

Phone: 617.384.7744
Fax: 617.384.6596
Email: ned@oeb.harvard.edu

Administrator

Alison Ring
Special Assistant
Weld Hill Research Building
Office: 617.384.5241
Fax: 617.384.6596
Email: aring@fas.harvard.edu
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