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  1. Home
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  3. The Data of Ethics
  • Cited by 3
Publisher:
Cambridge University Press
Online publication date:
February 2013
Print publication year:
2012
First published in:
1879
Online ISBN:
9781139149808
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139149808
Subjects:
Nineteenth-Century Philosophy, Philosophy: General Interest, Ethics, Philosophy
Series:
Cambridge Library Collection - Philosophy
Information

Book description

Herbert Spencer (1820–1903), Victorian philosopher, biologist, sociologist and political theorist, one of the founders of Social Darwinism and author of the phrase 'survival of the fittest', was nominated for the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1902, losing out to Theodor Mommsen. Spencer left his post at The Economist in 1857 to focus on writing his ten-volume System of Synthetic Philosophy, a work that offers an ethics-based guide to human conduct to replace that provided by conventional religious belief. Published in 1879, this volume seeks to demonstrate that social evolution tends towards greater individualism, altruism and co-operation. Spencer argues that it is possible to establish rules of right conduct on a scientific basis, and declares that this work is the culmination of his life's study. He was anxious to publish it outside the planned order of the System, because he feared (wrongly) that his death would prevent its completion.

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