Herbert Spencer (GBR)

Herbert Spencer (27 April 1820 – 8 December 1903) 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.

Primary sources:
Papers of Herbert Spencer in Senate House Library, University of London
Most of Spencer's books are available online
"On The Proper Sphere of Government" (1842)
Social Statics: or, The Conditions Essential to Human Happiness Specified, and the First of Them Developed (1851)
"The Right to Ignore the State" , Chapter XIX of the first edition of Social Statics(p)
Social Statics: Abridged and Revised (1892)
"A Theory of Population" (1852)
Principles of Psychology (1855), first edition, issued in one volume
Education (1861)
System of Synthetic Philosophy ',' in ten volumes
First Principles ISBN 0-89875-795-9 (1862)
Principles of Biology (1864, 1867; revised and enlarged: 1898), in two volumes
Volume I – Part I: The Data of Biology; Part II: The Inductions of Biology; Part III: The Evolution of Life; Appendices
Volume II – Part IV: Morphological Development; Part V: Physiological Development; Part VI: Laws of Multiplication; Appendices
Principles of Psychology (1870, 1880), in two volumes
Volume I – Part I: The Data of Psychology; Part II: The Inductions of Psychology; Part III: General Synthesis; Part IV: Special Synthesis; Part V: Physical Synthesis; Appendix
Volume II – Part VI: Special Analysis; Part VII: General Analysis; Part VIII: Congruities; Part IX: Corollaries
Principles of Sociology, in three volumes
Volume I (1874–75; enlarged 1876, 1885) – Part I: Data of Sociology; Part II: Inductions of Sociology; Part III: Domestic Institutions
Volume II – Part IV: Ceremonial Institutions (1879); Part V: Political Institutions (1882); Part VI [published here in some editions]: Ecclesiastical Institutions (1885)
Volume III – Part VI [published here in some editions]: Ecclesiastical Institutions (1885); Part VII: Professional Institutions (1896); Part VIII: Industrial Institutions (1896); References
The Principles of Ethics (1897), in two volumes
Volume I – Part I: The Data of Ethics (1879); Part II: The Inductions of Ethics (1892); Part III: The Ethics of Individual Life
(1892); References
Volume II – Part IV: The Ethics of Social Life: Justice (1891); Part V: The Ethics of Social Life: Negative Beneficence (1892); Part VI: The Ethics of Social Life: Positive Beneficence (1892); Appendices
The Study of Sociology (1873, 1896)
An Autobiography (1904), in two volumes
See also Spencer, Herbert (1904). An Autobiography . D. Appleton and Company.
v1 Life and Letters of Herbert Spencer by David Duncan (1908)
v2 Life and Letters of Herbert Spencer by David Duncan (1908)
Descriptive Sociology; or Groups of Sociological Facts, parts 1–8, classified and arranged by Spencer, compiled and abstracted by David Duncan, Richard Schepping, and James Collier (London, Williams & Norgate, 1873–1881).

Essay Collections:
Illustrations of Universal Progress: A Series of Discussions (1864, 1883)
The Man versus the State (1884)
Essays: Scientific, Political, and Speculative (1891), in three volumes:
Volume I (includes "The Development Hypothesis," "Progress: Its Law and Cause," "The Factors of Organic Evolution" and others)
Volume II (includes "The Classification of the Sciences", The Philosophy of Style (1852), The Origin and Function of Music," "The
Physiology of Laughter," and others)
Volume III (includes "The Ethics of Kant", "State Tamperings With Money and Banks", "Specialized Administration", "From Freedom to Bondage", "The Americans", and others)
Various Fragments (1897, enlarged 1900)
Facts and Comments (1902)
Great Political Thinkers (1960)

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbert_Spencer