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Articles

Forgotten Philosophers: Herbert Spencer

Tim Delaney on the survival of ‘survival of the fittest’.

Herbert Spencer was born in Derby, England, on April 27, 1820. He received no formal education but was taught at home by his schoolmaster father and his clergyman uncle. His lessons were heavily scientific and he was strong in mathematics and the natural sciences. His uncle Thomas taught him the principles of Philosophical Radicalism as well as the rigid code of dissenting Protestantism. When Thomas Spencer died in 1853, he left Herbert a large sum of money; enough to allow him the comfort to live the life of an independent scholar.

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