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Line 25: − As a consequence of his faith in the cosmic force of evolution Spencer became the champion of a social philosophy of [[laissez faire]], with the smallest possible role for the government. The individualism underlying his philosophy is succinctly expressed in his book on ''Ethics,'': "every man is free to do what he wills, provided he infringes not the equal freedom of any other man."<ref> See [http://books.google.com/books?id=CzBWAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=%22herbert+spencer%22+ethics&lr=&num=30&as_brr=0#PPA46,M1 text online p. 46 section 272]</ref>
explain his conservative ideas
==Life==
==Life==
Spencer was born into a poor but well-educated family. He was home-schooled by his father and his uncle Thomas Spencer, an evangelical clergyman who had been educated at Cambridge University. Starting at age 17 he spent four years as a civil engineer building railways, and the highly systematic engineering mode of analysis characterized his intellectual approaches. He never married.
Spencer was born into a poor but well-educated family. He was home-schooled by his father and his uncle Thomas Spencer, an evangelical clergyman who had been educated at Cambridge University. Starting at age 17 he spent four years as a civil engineer building railways, and the highly systematic engineering mode of analysis characterized his intellectual approaches. He never married.
==Spencer's ideas==
Spencer's ideas appeared first in magazine articles and were published in a series of books that he constantly rewrote and revised. His most important ideas (on evolution, especially) appeared in the 1850s and 1860s, and after 1870 or so he had little new to say.
His first book ''Social Statics'' (1850) was a utopian portrayal of an ideal society. He believed that human society was governed by fixed natural laws, and the government should be limited to enforcing those natural laws. He stressed the need for society to adjust to the material environment and proclaimed a libertarian principle of "equal freedom" for each individual, limited only by "the similar freedoms of all." He denied the legitimacy of private property in land, argued for the equality of men and women as a moral ideal, and said children should be educated through persuasion and rational argument rather than discipline and coercion.
In 1852 Spencer published a major article that articulated the idea of biological evolution and which had a major influence on [[Charles Darwin]]'s theory of evolution which appeared in 1859. In ‘The development hypothesis’, Spencer attacked "special-creationism", and proclaimed an evolutionary model of the natural world, based on a process of continuous small changes: "Surely if a single cell … may become a man in the space of twenty years … there is nothing absurd in the hypothesis that … a cell may, in the course of millions of years, give origin to the human race."
Spencer's second book, ''The Principles of Psychology,'' (1855) said that the human mind was the product of environmentally generated organic evolution; it came under attack for its atheism and materialism.
His essays on education, ''Education: Intellectual, Moral and Physical'' (1861) ridiculed the usual practice of cramming, the dominance of Latin and Greek in the upper class schools, and excessive attention to the stories of kings and queens. He recommended instead a program of "self-development", based on problem-solving, empirical geometry, healthy exercise, drawing from observation, and natural science. He said children should be taught and disciplined, not by artificial grades and punishments but by having to accept the consequences of their actions, with the "impersonal agency of Nature" replacing "the personal agency of parents."
Spencer spent forty years writing a series of books and articles explaining his "Synthetic Philosophy." The books sold very well and, especially in the 1870s, had a major impact on European and American thinkers. He focused on the evolution of biological organisms, and human society itself, by which he meant the inevitable movement from the simple to the complex. Thus simple one-celled organisms became complex multi-celled organisms over time. Likewise the simple way of life of "primitive" peoples evolved into the complex institutional arrangements of the modern world. Evolution was progress, he believed, and always moved forward.
In ''The Principles of Sociology'' (1876) and ''The Principles of Ethics'' (1879) proclaimed a universal law of socio-political development: societies moved from a military organization to a base in industrial production. As society evolved, he argued, there would be greater individualism, greater altruism, greater co-operation, and a more equal freedom for everyone. The laws of human society would produce the changes, and he said the only role for government was military police, and enforcement of civil contracts in courts. Many libertarians adopted his perspective.
Scientists by the 1870s were focused on laboratory work; Spencer never followed the new research and scientists ignored his increasingly outdated ideas. In biology, for example, Spencer clung to Lamarckianism long after other scientists rejected it as a model of how evolution worked.
In the social realm, Spencer's ignorance of history made it easy for scholars to prove that his theories of evolution simply did not match the historical record. For example, he believed that industrialization would automatically reduce warfare; instead it led to high powered armies and navies and to warfare on a much vaster scale, as in the two world wars.
==Creates conservative political arguments==
As a consequence of his faith in the cosmic force of evolution Spencer became the champion of a social philosophy of [[laissez faire]], with the smallest possible role for the government. The individualism underlying his philosophy is succinctly expressed in his book on ''Ethics,''
:"Every man is free to do what he wills, provided he infringes not the equal freedom of any other man."<ref> See [http://books.google.com/books?id=CzBWAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=%22herbert+spencer%22+ethics&lr=&num=30&as_brr=0#PPA46,M1 text online p. 46 section 272]</ref>
Politics in Britain moved in directions that Spencer disliked, and his arguments provided ammunition for conservatives and individualists in Europe and America that they still use in the 21st century. By the 1880s he was denouncing "the new Toryism" (that is, the social reformist wing of Prime Minister [[William E. Gladstone]]). In ''The Man versus the State'' (1884) he attacked Gladstone and the Liberal party for losing its proper mission (they should be defending personal liberty, he said) and instead promoting paternalist social legislation. Spencer denounced Irish land reform, compulsory education, laws to regulate safety at work, prohibition and temperance laws, free libraries, and welfare reforms. His main objections were threefold: the use of the coercive powers of the government, the discouragement given to voluntary self-improvement, and the disregard of the "laws of life." The reforms, he said, were tantamount to "socialism", which he said was about the same as "slavery" in terms of limiting human freedom. Spencer vehemently attacked the widespread enthusiasm for annexation of colonies and imperial expansion, which subverted all he had predicted about evolutionary progress from ‘militant’ to ‘industrial’ societies and states.
Spencer anticipated many of the analytical standpoints of later conservative theorists like [[Hayek]], especially in his "law of equal liberty", his insistence on the limits to predictive knowledge, his model of a spontaneous social order, and his warnings about the "unintended consequences" of collectivist social reforms.
==Religion==
==Religion==
==Influence==
==Influence==
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 1890, but he was rediscovered by American conservatives in the 1930s and his ideas about government remain influential among conservatives.