ABSTRACT
CLASSIFICATION is at the best of times imperfect. Discussions of Spencer’s philosophy—general, religious, and ethical—are organized into this and the next two chapters. Additionally, Chapter 5 lists many basic works that include accounts of Spencer’s philosophy. Many of the materials making up the present chapter are concerned with the early expression of Spencer’s philosophy (in Social Statics [item 68] and certain essays), as well as his overall philosophical system, both as it is articulated throughout his writings and in the inaugural work of A System of Synthetic Philosophy, namely, First Principles of a New System of Philosophy (item 16), which presents both Spencer’s metaphysical (Part I—“The Unknowable”) and physical (Part II—“The Knowable”) doctrines.
