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| | ==Influence== | | ==Influence== |
| − | [[Image:KarlMarx.jpg|thumb|right|Spencer shared his theories with the Communist philosopher Karl Marx.]]
| + | Spencer had a major influence on world thinkers in Europe, Asia and Latin America, especially British and American thinkers of the 1870s, including such prominent conservatives as [[Andrew Carnegie]] and [[William Graham Sumner]]. Spencer's influence faded in Britain and America after 1890, but he was rediscovered by American conservatives in the 1930s and his ideas about government remain influential among conservatives. |
| − | Spencer had a major influence on world thinkers in Europe, Asia and Latin America, especially British and American thinkers of the 1870s, including such prominent conservatives as [[Andrew Carnegie]] and [[William Graham Sumner]]. Spencer's influence faded in Britain and America after 1900. | |
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| − | Spencer is largely remembered today for his theories of [[social Darwinism]], the idea that evolutionary ideas applied to societies as well as people. Social Darwinism reached its political [[zenith]] in the [[Nazi]] regime of [[Adolf Hitler]], and is mostly discredited today.
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| − | Herbert Spencer died of poor health in 1903. He asked to be buried in the [[Highgate Cemetery]] of [[London]] so that he would be facing the grave of the [[atheist]] [[Karl Marx]], the well-known founder of the [[Communist]] movement. A fair number of people travel each year to pay their respects to Marx and Spencer.<ref>http://www.victorianweb.org/philosophy/spencer/spencer.html</ref>
| + | Spencer is largely remembered today for his theories of [[social Darwinism]], the idea that evolutionary ideas applied to societies as well as people. Spencer developed his ideas before Darwin, and "social darwinism" dealt only with the progressive betterment of human society. |
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| | ==Bibliography== | | ==Bibliography== |