Herbert Spencer: Legacies

Mark Francis is Professor of Political Science at the University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand. He is author of the critically acclaimed Herbert Spencer and the Invention of Modern Life (2007). Michael W. Taylor has written several well received books on Herbert Spencer, including Men Versus the State: Herbert Spencer and Late Victorian Individualism (1992) and The Philosophy of Herbert Spencer (2007).

• 1. Introduction Mark Francis 2. The method of nature: Herbert Spencer and the education of the adaptive mind Stephen Tomlinson 3. Herbert Spencer: nineteenth-century politics and twentieth-century individualism Michael W. Taylor 4. Herbert Spencer’s sociological legacy Jonathan H. Turner 5. Containing multitudes: Herbert Spencer, organisms social and orders of individuality James Elwick 6. Herbert Spencer, biology, and the social sciences in Britain Chris Renwick 7. Spencer and the moral philosophers: Mill, Sidgwick, Moore John Skorupski 8. The problem with star dust: Spencer’s psychology and William James Mark Francis 9. Spencer, cognition, fiction Vanessa L. Ryan 10. Herbert Spencer and Lamarckism Peter J. Bowler 11. Spencer’s British disciples Bernard Lightman. Index

A CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title, 2015'The contributions in this essential addition to scholarly collections are insightful critiques of Spencer’s thought, influence, and connections to the contemporary world. ... Each author introduces a different aspect of Spencer’s thought, puts it into late-19th-through early-20th-century context, identifies its contemporary influence, and suggests its ongoing relevance. Spencer scholars will find things with which to quibble, but overall this is the best and most comprehensive consideration of Spencer’s place and influence in the broad history of ideas since 1900. Summing Up: Essential.' - C. R. Versen, CHOICE