Herbert Spencer was born on April 27, 1820 in the English city of Derby. His father, William George Spencer, was a believer who rebelled against official religious dogma and converted from the Methodist Church to Quaker society. He headed a school that preached the progressive teaching methods of Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi. He was also secretary of the Philosophical School of Derby. The father taught his son empiricism, and other representatives of the Philosophical School introduced the boy to pre-Darwinian views on the theory of evolution. Herbert's uncle, Reverend Thomas Spencer, gave the boy necessary education teaching him mathematics, physics and Latin. He also instilled physiocratic and anti-state views in his nephew.

Philosophical activity

Having found no use in the field of intellectual knowledge and professional specialties, Herbert works as a railway engineer. But at the same time, he publishes provincial journals, nonconformist in their views on religion and radical in their political ideas. From 1848 to 1853 Spencer was assistant editor of The Economist, a physiocratic journal. At the same time, he writes his first work, "Social Statistics" (1851).

The book's publisher, John Chapman, introduces Spencer to the leading progressive minds of his day—John Stuart Mill, Harietta Martino, George Henry Lewis, and Mary Ann Evans. Just at this time, Spencer met the biologist Thomas Henry Huxley, with whom they would become close friends in the future. With the help of Lewis and Evans, Spencer is introduced to John Stuart Mill's System of Logic and Auguste Comte's positivism. All this would form the basis of his second book, The Principles of Psychology (1855). The true desire to establish the unity of natural law leads him to the study of psychology. Like most thinkers of that time, Spencer was literally obsessed with the idea of ​​proving that any phenomenon in the universe, including human culture, can be explained by laws of a universal nature. This belief ran counter to contemporary theological notions that held that a number of elements of creation—such as the human soul—are beyond the scope of scientific research. In 1858, Spencer was beginning to form the views that would lead to his System of Synthetic Philosophy, the purpose of which was to demonstrate the application of the principles of evolution to biology, psychology, sociology, and ethics. This work, which will consist of ten volumes, Spencer will devote almost the rest of his life.

Later years

By the 1870s. Spencer becomes the most popular philosopher of his time. His work is widely known, bringing the author a considerable income from sales. On this income, as well as on fees for his constant work in the field of Victorian journalism, he lives. Articles he wrote for Victorian magazines would later be collected in the Essays collection. His works will be translated into German, Italian, Spanish, French, Russian, Japanese, Chinese, and many other languages ​​of the world. In the countries of Europe and North America, Spencer receives numerous honors and awards. He becomes a member of the "Athenaeum" - a privileged gentlemen's club in London, open only to the most prominent figures of art and science. Spencer also joins the prestigious X Club, a society founded by T. G. Huxley that had the honor of being a member of only nine of the most influential thinkers of the Victorian era. Society meetings were held monthly. Among them, in addition to Spencer and Huxley, were also the physicist philosopher John Tyndall and Darwin's cousin, the banker and biologist Sir John Lubbock. The guests of the “X” club were Charles Darwin himself and Hermann von Helmholtz. Such good connections put Spencer in a special position in scientific world. Even having become rich, Spencer never got his own house. He remained a bachelor all his life, and therefore he spends the last decades of his life alone and is increasingly disappointed in his own former views. At the end of his life, he becomes a hypochondriac and incessantly complains of pain and mental disorders. In contrast to his early theories about the protection of women's rights and the nationalization of land, outlined in Social Statistics, in his later period Spencer becomes a vocal opponent of giving women the right to vote. These political convictions he expresses clearly in his work Man and the State. In 1902, a year before his death, Herbert Spencer was nominated for Nobel Prize in the field of literature.

Death

Spencer worked on his books until the end of his days. He died on December 8, 1903, at the age of 83. His ashes are buried in the eastern part of Hagate Cemetery in London.

Influence on philosophical thought

In the 1870s-1880s. Spencer gained popularity that his predecessors rarely managed to achieve. He became the first and only philosopher during whose lifetime more than a million copies of his works were sold. His work had a significant impact on the views of a number of contemporaries, including Henry Sidgwick, T. H. Green, J. E. Moore, William James, Henry Bergson, and Emily Durkheim. Political Views of that time were formed largely according to his theories. Spencer's philosophical thought inspired those who stood on the fact that a person is the master of his own destiny and should not tolerate the slightest interference in it by the state. Part of his philosophy was the assertion that social development requires a strong centralized authority. Spencer's teachings gained extreme popularity in China and Japan. The spreader of his ideas in China was the Chinese philosopher Yan Fu, whose theories, in turn, influenced the Japanese journalist Tokutomi Soho, who believed that Japan was on the verge of a transition from a "fighting state" to an "industrial society", which urgently needed to be adopted Western ethics and teachings. Spencer's work also had a significant impact on the development of literature and rhetoric. His ideas were used in their writings by such famous writers and authors as George Eliot, Leo Tolstoy, Thomas Hardy, Boleslav Prus, Avrom Kagan, D. G. Lawrence, Machado de Assis and Richard Austin Freeman. H. J. Wells, in his famous story "The Time Machine", using Spencer's theories, explained the process of human evolution into two species of individuals.

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(1820-1903) - English philosopher, sociologist psychologist One of the founders of positivism, the main representative of evolutionism, which received in the second half of the 19th century. wide use. He worked as an engineer on the railroad (1837-1841), then contributed to the Economist (1848-1853). Since the 1850s devoted himself entirely to the development of philosophical problems. S. outlined his views in the ten-volume work System of synthetic philosophy (v. 1-10, L., 1862-1896), which included the Basic Principles, the Foundations of Biology, the Foundations of Psychology, the Foundations of Sociology, the Foundations of Ethics. In his philosophical concept, S. followed Comte's positivism, although he denied his dependence on his views. S. was also influenced by the agnosticism of D. Hume and J. S. Mill, I. Kant, and the natural philosophical ideas of F.V. Schelling. Combining the evolutionary approach with the main provisions of positivism, they did not extend them only to nature and society, but to all manifestations of mental life. In an effort to combine the positivist interpretation of knowledge (which requires being limited to observable facts) with elements of a prioriism, S. put forward a version according to which what is taken as a priori (self-evident, given to an individual before any experience) actually has experimental grounds. However, the individual does not realize this, since he receives experimental knowledge by inheritance from previous generations. In psychology, S. firmly adhered to the associative doctrine that prevailed in the middle of the 19th century. Combining it with the principle of development, he explained this development as an increase in associative connections, when two mental states, following one after another (both in phylogenesis and ontogenesis), are so firmly linked that when the first is reproduced, there is a tendency to another arose. However, traditional associationism, so typical of English psychological thought, underwent an important transformation in the interpretation of S., which was due to the reliance on the principle of evolutionary explanation of everything that happens to the human body and its consciousness. S. acted as the founder of evolutionary associationism. This gave exceptional popularity to his work Fundamentals of Psychology (1855). The first edition of this book (which appeared even before Darwin's Origin of Species, where new principles for the development of wildlife were outlined), went unnoticed. But the second edition of the Fundamentals of Psychology (1870-1872) brought S. all-European fame, influencing psychological teachings in various countries, including Russia. S. considered the development of the psyche as a special case of action general pattern, expressed by the formula: from indefinite incoherent homogeneity to a certain coherent heterogeneity. This meant that mental life (both in the animal world and in an individual) has a single vector of evolution, in the course of which undifferentiated, disparate forms become more and more differentiated and integrated. Of particular importance in the psychological explanations of S. was the dissemination of a new understanding of the determination of phenomena developed by evolutionary biology. If before the organism was interpreted as a system that is separated from its environment and adapts to it in the process of life, then in the psychology of S. an understanding was established not of the organism itself, but new system : an organism is an environment as a special integrity, evolving according to its own special laws. This was clearly expressed by one of the main ideas of C, according to which life is a continuous adaptation of internal relations to external ones. From this point of view, the mental process should also be considered as a kind of life process. Consciousness was thus analyzed in the context of biological adaptation. Existence and development cannot have any other meaning than as an adaptive one. If the psyche did not serve this purpose, S believed, its appearance and development would be a miracle. Natural selection creates the psyche with an inexorable necessity, and it serves as one of the most powerful weapons of survival. It followed from this that all psychological categories should be reviewed from the point of view of their service role in survival. They are not functions or phenomena of consciousness, as given to the subject in the process of self-reporting about him, but various groupings of operations (such as perception, memory, reason, etc.), through which adaptation to the environment is realized. Thus, S. belonged to the priority in such an interpretation of the facts of consciousness, in which they would be correlated both with intraorganismal connections and with external characteristics of processes in relation to it. Hence, the view of the subject area of ​​psychology, which at that time was limited internally by mental processes, radically changed. For the middle of the XIX century. S.'s teachings were quite unusual, since introspectionism dominated in all psychological directions. It was dissatisfaction with introspectionism that prompted the ideologist of positivism O. Comte, on whose positions S relied, to deny psychology the right to be considered a real science. S. also argued that, along with subjective psychology, there must be an objective one, which considers behavior not from the point of view of internal experiences, but from positions that allow us to consider the psyche as a set of neuromuscular adaptations. By means of these adaptations, the higher organisms adapt their actions every moment to the coexistences and successions that surround them. From this, the eclectic nature of the psychological doctrine of S, who sought to reconcile subjective psychology with objective psychology under the auspices of evolutionary theory, was clear. S. belongs to the first serious attempt to explain the psyche (both from the side of content, and from the side of change and development) from the standpoint of the general principles of organic evolution. These explanations gave impetus to the introduction of new ideas into various psychological trends, both materialistic and idealistic. In Russia, S. was influenced by I.M. Sechenov, who set himself the task of explaining mental development reconcile Spencer with Helmholtz and, on this basis, develop a new doctrine of the elements of thought. S.'s view of consciousness as an instrument of adaptation to the environment was taken by Jace, from whom he moved to American functionalism, and then - instrumentalism. A certain influence on psychology was also exerted by other provisions of C, in particular, concerning the hereditary determination of forms of cognition, the interpretation of society as an organism developing according to the general laws of evolution. If subsequently the works of S. lost their relevance, then during the formation of psychology as a science that has its own subject, they created an ideological atmosphere that contributed to its reorientation to the biological sciences and thereby strengthening the natural-scientific orientation of psychology. Main works C: Works, v.l -18, L-N.Y., 1910. In Russian trans. Collected works, vols. 1-7, St. Petersburg, 1866-1869, (2nd ed. 1898-1900); Autobiography, part 1-2, St. Petersburg, 1914. A.I. Lipkina, M.G. Yaroshevsky

Introduction………………………………………………………………..3

Biography of Herbert Spencer……………………………………4

The Industrial Age and Spencer…………………………….10

Spencer's Pedagogy…………………………………………...12

Conclusion………………………………………………………...16

Bibliography……………........................................... ...........17

Introduction

Relevance of the topic. The thoughts and work of the British philosopher and sociologist Herbert Spencer were far ahead of their time. Interest in them has not weakened to this day, many of his thoughts and statements are relevant to this day, which once again proves the genius of the great Englishman.

Purpose of the abstract. The purpose of this essay is to review the pedagogical ideas of Herbert Spencer.

To achieve the existing goal, several tasks must be considered

Read the biography of Herbert Spencer.

Examine the influence of the industrial age on Spencer's work

Familiarize yourself with Spencer's main pedagogical ideas.

Herbert Spencer introduced a number of the following definitions into pedagogy and other sciences:

Differentiation is the emergence from a certain homogeneity of diversity; division into forms and steps; the emergence in the body in the process of development of morphological and functional differences.

Integration is the emergence of integrity, unity in the system, based on the complementarity and interdependence of individual elements.

Methods for working on an abstract:

The structure of the abstract: The abstract consists of an introduction, the main part, in which there are 3 sections, a conclusion and a list of references, in which there are 7 sources.

The introduction is a statement of the problem, emphasizes the relevance of the chosen topic. The main part organizes all theoretical knowledge about the chosen issue. The conclusion reflects the conclusions on the tasks set in the introduction.

The list of references includes 7 titles.

1. Biography of Herbert Spencer.

Herbert Spencer was born April 27, 1820 in Derby. His grandfather, father and uncle were teachers. Herbert was in such poor health that his parents lost hope several times that he would survive. Herbert did not show phenomenal abilities in childhood and only learned to read at the age of eight, however, books did not interest him. At school, he was distracted and lazy, besides being naughty and stubborn. At home, his father was engaged in his upbringing. He wanted his son to have independent and extraordinary thinking. Thanks to physical exercises, Herbert improved his health. At the age of 13 he was sent, according to the English custom, to be brought up by an uncle who was a chaplain in Bath. Spencer's uncle Thomas was a "university man". At his insistence, Herbert continued his education at the University of Cambridge, but then, after completing a three-year preparatory course, he went home and took up self-education. Spencer himself never regretted that he did not receive an academic education. He went through a good school of life, which later helped him overcome many difficulties in solving the tasks. Spencer's father hoped that his son would follow in his footsteps and choose a teaching path. Indeed, having received a secondary education, Herbert helped the teacher for several months at the school where he had once studied himself. He had an undoubted pedagogical talent. However, Spencer was more interested in mathematics and natural science than in the humanities - history and philology. Therefore, when the place of an engineer was vacated during construction railway London - Birmingham, he accepted the offer without hesitation. The newly minted engineer drew maps, sketched out plans, even invented a tool for measuring the speed of locomotives - the "velocimeter". The practical mindset distinguishes Spencer from most philosophers of previous eras and brings him closer to Comte, the founder of positivism, and the neo-Kantian Renouvier, who, like him, never completed a university course in the humanities 2 . This feature, no doubt, played an important role in the formation of his philosophical outlook, which was distinguished by originality. However, this also had its drawbacks. So, for example, like Comte, he did not know the German language at all, therefore he could not read the works of the great German philosophers in the original. Moreover, during the first half of the 19th century, German philosophy (Kant, Fichte, Schelling, etc.) remained completely unknown in England. Only from the end of the 1820s did the British begin to get acquainted with the works of German geniuses. But the first translations leave much to be desired. In 1839, Lyell's famous work "Principles of Geology" fell into the hands of Spencer. He gets acquainted with the theory of evolution of organic life. Spencer is still passionate about engineering projects, but it is now becoming clear that this profession does not guarantee him a solid financial position.

In 1841, Herbert returned home and spent two years educating himself. He reads the works of the classics of philosophy. At the same time, he published his first essays - articles for the "Nonconformist" on the issue of the true boundaries of the state.

In 1843-1846 he again worked as an engineer and headed a bureau of sixty people. Spencer is getting more and more interested political issues. In this area, he was greatly influenced by Uncle Thomas, an Anglican priest who, unlike the rest of the Spencer family, adhered to strictly conservative views, took part in the Chartist democratic movement and in agitation against the Corn Laws. 2 In 1846, Spencer receives a patent for the sawing and planing machines he invented. This is where his engineering career ends. In 1848, Spencer received a job as assistant editor of the weekly The Economist. He earns well, and devotes all his free time to his own work. He writes "Social Statistics", in which he considered the development of life as a gradually realized divine idea. He later found the concept too theological. But already in this work, Spencer applies the theory of evolution to social life. The writing did not go unnoticed by experts. Spencer makes acquaintances with Huxley, Lewis and Ellist; the same work brought him such friends and admirers as J. Stuart Mill, Georg Groth, Hooker. Only with Carlyle did he not have a relationship. The bilious pessimism of Carlyle, the cold-blooded and judicious philosopher, could not stand “I can’t argue with him and don’t want to listen to his nonsense anymore, and therefore I’m leaving him,” Spencer wrote. The success of Social Statistics inspired Spencer. In the period from 1848 to 1858, he published a number of works and pondered a plan, the implementation of which he devoted his whole life to.

In his second work "Psychology" (1855), he applies the hypothesis of the natural origin of species to psychology and points out that the inexplicable by individual experience can be explained by ancestral experience. Darwin therefore considers him among his predecessors.

Spencer's system begins to take shape. What currents of philosophical thought influenced him? These are the empiricism of previous English thinkers, mainly Hume and Mill, the criticism of Kant, refracted through the prism of the teachings of Hamilton (representative of the English school of "common sense"), Schelling's natural philosophy and Comte's positivism. But the main idea of ​​building a new philosophical system was the idea of ​​development. Synthetic philosophy" he gave 36 years of his life. This work made him a real "ruler of thoughts", and he was declared the most brilliant philosopher of his time. Lewis, in his History of Philosophy, asks: "Has England ever produced a thinker of a higher order than Spencer?" 1

J. Stuart Mill puts him on the same level as August Comte. Darwin calls him "the greatest living philosopher of England now, perhaps equal to any of the former philosophers." In 1858, Spencer decided to announce a subscription to the publication of his work. He publishes the first issue in 1860. During 1860-1863, "Basic Principles" were published. But the publication, due to financial difficulties, progressed with difficulty. Spencer suffers losses and need, is on the verge of poverty. To this must be added nervous overwork, which prevented him from working. In 1865, he bitterly informs readers that he must suspend the publication of the series. True, two years after the death of his father, he receives a small inheritance. At the same time, Herbert met the American Youmans, who published his works in the United States, where Spencer gained wide popularity earlier than in England. Youmans and American fans provide material support to the philosopher, which allows the publication of books in the series to be resumed. The friendship between Spencer and Youmans lasted 27 years, until the death of the latter. Gradually, the name of Spencer becomes known, the demand for his books increases, and by 1875 he covers his financial losses and receives the first profit. In the following years, he makes two long trips to America and southern Europe, but mostly lives in LondonThe fact that Spencer spent more than twenty years to implement his project is due primarily to his poor health. As soon as he felt better, the philosopher immediately began to work intensively. And so - until the end of life. Work, work, work... His strength weakened more and more, and finally in 1886 he had to interrupt his work for four long years.

But constant physical suffering did not weaken his spiritual power. Spencer publishes the last volume of his main work in the autumn of 1896. This huge work consists of ten volumes and includes "Basic Principles", "Foundations of Biology", "Foundations of Psychology", "Foundations of Sociology". Spencer believes that the development of the world, including society, is based on the law of evolution: “Matter passes from a state of indefinite, incoherent homogeneity into a state of a certain coherent heterogeneity,” in other words, it differentiates. He considers this law to be universal and traces its action in various spheres, including in the history of society, on concrete material. Recognizing the regularity of the development of society, Spencer refuses various theological explanations, and his understanding of society as a single living organism, all parts of which are interconnected, prompts him to study history and expands the range of historical research. 3

According to Spencer, evolution is based on the law of equilibrium: with any violation of it, nature tends to return to its previous state. Since, according to Spencer, the education of characters is of primary importance, evolution proceeds slowly, and Spencer is not as optimistic about the near future as Comte and Mill. Herbert Spencer died on December 8, 1903.

Spencer Herbert (April 27, 1820, Derby - December 8, 1903, Brighton) - British philosopher and religious scholar (Fig. 2). G. Having received a higher technical education, he first worked as an engineer on the railway, and then in 1848-1853 as an assistant editor in the Economist magazine. All subsequent years he led the life of an armchair scientist, consistently implementing the extensive writing program he had compiled for himself. Despite financial difficulties and long periods of incapacity due to illness, G. Spencer completed the publication of his main work - the multi-volume "Synthetic Philosophy" - and made his contribution to almost all areas of the humanities. G. Spencer lived in London, making occasional trips to Scotland and the countries of continental Europe. He died at Brighton in 1903.

Rice. 2

H. Spencer's views on religion are scattered throughout many of his works. For religious studies, the most important are his following works: "First Principles" (1862), "Principles of Sociology" (1876-1896), "The Nature and Reality of Religion" (1885).

The central place in the philosophy of G. Spencer is occupied by the idea of ​​evolution, which he understands as a smooth and gradual progress. The source of this progress is the interaction of internal and external forces, and its essence lies in the transformation of the homogeneous into the heterogeneous. Applying these general philosophical principles to the sphere of religion, G. Spencer put forward the position that the emergence of religion is associated with a feeling of fear of dead ancestors. In the course of the evolution of man and society, from the veneration of ancestors uniform for all primitive people, various ideas about supernatural entities and gods arise.

short biography

Born in Derby (Derbyshire) in the family of a teacher. Refused an offer to get an education at Cambridge (subsequently refused a professorship at University College London and membership in the Royal Society). He was a teacher, a railway employee, a journalist (assistant editor at the Economist magazine). He was closely acquainted with J. Eliot, J. G. Lewis, T. Huxley, J. S. Mill and J. Tyndall, in last years life with B. Webb. During several trips to France, he met with O. Comte. In 1853 he received an inheritance and was able to devote himself entirely to philosophy and science.

views

In 1858, Spencer drew up a plan for the work that became the main work of his life, A System of Synthetic Philosophy, which was to include 10 volumes. The main principles of Spencer's "synthetic philosophy" were formulated at the very first stage of the implementation of his program, in the Basic Principles. In other volumes an interpretation has been given in the light of these ideas of the various particular sciences.

The greatest scientific value is his research in sociology, including two of his other treatises: "Social Statics" (Social Statics, 1851) and " sociological research"(The Study of Sociology, 1872) and eight volumes containing systematized sociological data," Descriptive Sociology "(Descriptive Sociology, 1873--1881). Spencer is the founder of the "organic school" in sociology. Society, from his point of view, is an evolving organism, similar to a living organism, considered biological science. Societies can organize and control their own processes of adaptation, and then they develop towards militaristic regimes; they can also allow free and flexible adaptation and then turn into industrialized states. However, the inexorable course of evolution makes adaptation "not an accident, but a necessity." Spencer considered the social philosophy of laissez-faire to be a consequence of the concept of the cosmic force of evolution. The principle of individualism underlying this philosophy is clearly stated in the "Principles of Ethics": "Every person is free to do what he wants, as long as he does not violate the equal freedom of any other person."

Social evolution is a process of increasing "individuation". In Autobiography (2 vol., 1904), an ultra-individualist in character and origin appears, a man of extraordinary self-discipline and hard work, but almost devoid of a sense of humor and romantic aspirations. Spencer died in Brighton on December 8, 1903. Spencer opposed revolutions and had a sharply negative attitude towards socialist ideas. He believed that human society, like the organic world, develops gradually, evolutionarily. He was an open opponent of education for the poor, considered the democratization of education harmful.

In the tradition of positivist sociology, Spencer, based on the research of Ch. Darwin, suggested using evolutionary theory to explain social change. However, in contrast to Comte, he did not focus on what changes in society at different periods human history, but on why social changes occur and why conflicts and cataclysms arise in society. In his opinion, all elements of the Universe evolve in unity - inorganic, organic and supraorganic (social). Spencer substantiates the postulate according to which changes occur in society as its members adapt or to natural environment, or to the social environment. As evidence and validity of his postulate, the scientist gives numerous examples of the dependence of the nature of human activity on the geography of the area, climatic conditions, population, etc.

According to Spencer, the evolution of the physical and intellectual abilities of the members of society is interdependent with the evolution of the social. It follows that the quality of life of members of society. the character of economic and political institutions depends in the final analysis on the "average level" of the people's development. Therefore, any attempts to artificially push social evolution through, for example, regulation of supply and demand, or radical reforms in the political sphere without taking into account the properties of the members that make up society, from the point of view of the scientist, should turn into cataclysms and unpredictable consequences: "If you once intervene in the natural order of nature," he wrote, "then no one can predict the final results. And if this remark is true in the realm of nature, then it is even more true in relation to the social organism, consisting of human beings, united in a single whole."

Spencer believed that human civilization as a whole is developing along an ascending line. But individual societies (as well as subspecies in organic nature) can not only progress, but also degrade: "Humanity can go straight only by exhausting all possible paths." When determining the stage historical development of a particular society, Spencer uses two criteria - the level of evolutionary complexity and the scale of structural and functional systems, according to which he refers society to a certain system of complexity - simple, complex, double complexity, triple complexity, etc.

Investigating the origin of all living bodies, and G. Spencer considered society to be such, he set himself the task of making as many empirical generalizations as possible to prove the evolutionary hypothesis. This would allow him to assert with greater certainty that evolution has taken place and is taking place in all areas of nature, including science and art, religion and philosophy. The evolutionary hypothesis, Spencer believed, finds support both in numerous analogies and in direct data. Considering evolution as a transition from an indefinite, incoherent homogeneity to a definite, coherent heterogeneity that accompanies the dispersion of motion and the integration of matter, he distinguished three types of evolution in his work Fundamental Principles: inorganic, organic, and supraorganic. Special attention was paid by G. Spencer to the analysis of supraorganic evolution in another work "Foundations of Sociology".

The less developed the physical, emotional and intellectual abilities of a person, the stronger his dependence on external conditions existence, the most important part of which may be the corresponding group formation. In the struggle for survival, a person and a group perform a number of unintended actions, objectively predetermined functions. These functions, carried out by members of certain groups and by the groups themselves, determine group organizations and structures, the corresponding institutions for monitoring the behavior of group members. Such formations of primitive people may seem very strange and often unnecessary to modern people. But for uncivilized people, Spencer believed, they are necessary, as they perform a certain social role, allow the tribe to carry out the corresponding function aimed at maintaining its normal life.

Not having the necessary direct data on the functioning of society as a complex social system (empirical sociology appeared only at the beginning of the 20th century), Spencer tried to draw a consistent analogy between a biological organism and society as a social organism. He argued that the continuous growth of society makes it possible to look at it as an organism. Societies, like biological organisms, develop in "germ form" and from small "masses" by increasing units and expanding groups, joining groups into larger groups, and compounding these larger groups into still larger groups. Primitive social groups, like groups of the simplest organisms, never reach a significant size by "mere increase". The repetition of the processes of formation of vast societies by connecting smaller ones leads to the connection of secondary formations into tertiary ones. Thus. Spencer carried out a typology of societies according to the stages of development. Spencer actively defended the idea that society cannot and should not absorb the individual.

Herbert Spencer was born April 27, 1820 in Derby. His grandfather, father and uncle were teachers. Herbert did not show phenomenal abilities in childhood and only learned to read at the age of eight, however, books did not interest him. At school, he was distracted and lazy, besides being naughty and stubborn. At home, his father was involved in his upbringing. Thanks to physical exercises, Herbert improved his health.

At the age of 13, he was sent, according to English custom, to be raised by his uncle, who was a priest in Bath. At the insistence of his uncle, Herbert continued his education at Cambridge University, but then, after completing a three-year preparatory course, he left home and took up self-education. Spencer's father hoped that his son would follow in his footsteps and choose a teaching path. Indeed, having received a secondary education, Herbert helped the teacher for several months at the school where he had once studied himself. He had an undoubted pedagogical talent. However, Spencer was more interested in mathematics and science than humanities- history and philology. Therefore, when the position of an engineer was vacated during the construction of the London-Birmingham railway, he accepted the offer without hesitation.

The newly minted engineer drew maps, sketched out plans, even invented a tool for measuring the speed of locomotives - the "velocimeter". In 1839, Lyell's famous work "Principles of Geology" fell into the hands of Spencer. He gets acquainted with the theory of evolution of organic life. Spencer is still passionate about engineering projects, but it is now becoming clear that this profession does not guarantee him a solid financial position. In 1841, Herbert returned home and spent two years educating himself. At the same time, he published his first essays - articles for the "Nonconformist" on the issue of the true boundaries of the state.

In 1843-1846 he again worked as an engineer and headed a bureau of sixty people. Spencer is increasingly interested in political issues. In this area, he was greatly influenced by Uncle Thomas, an Anglican priest who, unlike the rest of the Spencer family, adhered to strictly conservative views, took part in the Chartist democratic movement and in agitation against the Corn Laws.

In 1846, Spencer receives a patent for the invented sawing and planing machines. This is where his engineering career ends. Now his interests are turned to journalism. In 1848, Spencer received a job as assistant editor of the weekly The Economist. He devotes all his free time to his own work. He writes Social Statistics. Already in this work, Spencer applies the theory of evolution to social life. The writing did not go unnoticed by experts. Spencer makes acquaintances with Huxley, Lewis and Ellist; the same work brought him such friends and admirers as J. Stuart Mill, Georg Groth, Hooker. Only with Carlyle did he not have a relationship.

The success of Social Statistics inspired Spencer. In the period from 1848 to 1858, he published a number of works and pondered a plan, the implementation of which he devoted his whole life to. In his second work "Psychology" (1855), he applies the hypothesis of the natural origin of species to psychology and points out that the inexplicable by individual experience can be explained by ancestral experience. Darwin therefore considers him among his predecessors.

He devoted 36 years of his life to his main work, Synthetic Philosophy. This work made him a real "ruler of thoughts", and he was declared the most brilliant philosopher of his time. In 1858, Spencer decided to announce a subscription to the publication of his work. He publishes the first issue in 1860. During 1860-1863, "Basic Principles" were published. But the publication, due to financial difficulties, progressed with difficulty. Spencer suffers losses and need, is on the verge of poverty. In 1865, he bitterly informs readers that he must suspend the publication of the series. True, two years after the death of his father, he receives a small inheritance. At the same time, Herbert met the American Youmans, who published his works in the United States, where Spencer gained wide popularity earlier than in England. Youmans and American fans provide material support to the philosopher, which allows the publication of books in the series to be resumed. Gradually, the name of Spencer becomes known, the demand for his books increases, and by 1875 he covers his financial losses and receives the first profit.

In the following years, he makes two long trips to America and southern Europe, but mostly lives in London. His goal is to complete his enormous work, to which he sacrificed himself. The fact that Spencer spent more than twenty years on the realization of his project is due primarily to his poor health. As soon as he felt better, the philosopher immediately began to work intensively. And so - until the end of life. His strength weakened more and more, and finally in 1886 he had to interrupt his work for four long years. But constant physical suffering did not weaken his spiritual power. Spencer publishes the last volume of his main work in the autumn of 1896. Herbert Spencer died on December 8, 1903 in Brighton. Despite poor health, he lived for more than eighty-three years.