Herbert Spencer and the invention of modern life

Resource Information

The work Herbert Spencer and the invention of modern life represents a distinct intellectual or artistic creation found in Sydney Jones Library, University of Liverpool. This resource is a combination of several types including: Work, Language Material, Books.

Label

Herbert Spencer and the invention of modern life

Statement of responsibility

Mark Francis

Creator

• Francis, Mark, 1944-
• Francis, Mark, 1944-

Subject

• Philosophers, Modern -- Great Britain -- Biography
• Spencer, Herbert, 1820-1903
• Spencer, Herbert, 1820-1903.

Genre

• Biography

Language

eng

Summary

"The ideas of the English philosopher Herbert Spencer (1820-1903) profoundly shaped Victorian thought regarding evolutionary theory, the philosophy of science, sociology and politics. In his day, Spencer's works ranked alongside those of Darwin and Marx in their importance to the development of disciplines as wide-ranging as sociology, anthropology, political theory, philosophy and psychology. Yet during his lifetime - and certainly in the decades that followed - Spencer has been widely misunderstood. Both lauded and disparaged as the father of Social Darwinism (it was Spencer who coined the phrase "survival of the fittest"), and as an apologist for individualism and unrestrained capitalism, he was, in fact, none of these; he was instead a subtle and complex thinker." "In his biography of Spencer, Mark Francis uses archival material and contemporary printed sources to create a portrait of a man who attempted to explain modern life in all its biological, psychological, and sociological forms through a unique philosophical and scientific system that bridged the gap between empiricism and metaphysics. Influential in England and beyond - particularly the United States and Asia - his philosophy was, as Francis shows, systematic and rigorous. Despite the success he found in the realm of ideas, Spencer was an unhappy man. Francis reveals how Spencer felt permanently crippled by the Christian values he had absorbed during childhood, and was incapable of romantic love, as became clear during his relationship with the novelist George Eliot."--BOOK JACKET

Biography type

individual biography

Cataloging source

UKM

Illustrations

illustrations

Index

no index present

LC call number

B1656

LC item number

.F73 2007b

Literary form

non fiction