ABSTRACT
This chapter attempts only to present a few scant biographical details about Herbert Spencer and to identify individual liberty and “universal transformation” as the two dominant themes of his life’s work. Spencer observes that without these early letters on the rightful scope of government, none of his other works, from Social Statics to A System of Synthetic Philosophy, would have materialized. Spencer suggests that social causation is more complex than any other kind. Consequently, he did not see in the endless parade of remedial legislation the answer for all the social ills and problems of his or any other day. Spencer’s philosophy represents a strictly naturalistic approach to all orders of phenomena. Spencer’s psychology introduces a characteristically mediational doctrine of “transfigured realism.” Spencer also accomplishes a ground-breaking analysis of the problem of bias. He focuses on the kind of objectivity and neutrality demanded by science in reaching dependable sociological conclusions. Spencer’s sociology is at once evolutionist, functionalist, and comparative.
