Herbert Spencer and the invention of modern life / Mark Francis.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Francis, Mark, 1944- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Spencer, Herbert, 1820-1903.

Spencer, Herbert.

Philosophers, Modern--Great Britain--Biography.

Philosophers, Modern.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xiv, 434 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Other Title:

Herbert Spencer & the Invention of Modern Life

Place of Publication:

Durham : Acumen Publishing, 2007.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

The English philosopher Herbert Spencer (1820-1903) was a colossus of the Victorian age. His works ranked alongside those of Darwin and Marx in the development of disciplines as wide ranging as sociology, anthropology, political theory, philosophy and psychology. His unique system of knowledge, which bridged the gap between empiricism and metaphysics, offered modern and scientific answers to questions about the meaning of life and made him a world philosopher of the late nineteenth century. In this major new study of Spencer, the first for over thirty years, Mark Francis provides an authoritative and meticulously researched intellectual biography of this remarkable man. Using archival material and contemporary printed sources, Francis creates a fascinating portrait of a human being whose philosophical and scientific system was a unique attempt to explain modern life in all its biological, psychological and sociological forms. Herbert Spencer and the Invention of Modern Life fills what is perhaps the last big biographical gap in Victorian history. An exceptional work of scholarship it not only dispels the plethora of misinformation surrounding Spencer but shines new light on the broader cultural history of the nineteenth century. Elegantly written, provocative and rich in insight it will be required reading for all students of the period.

Contents:

A portrait of a private man

The longing for passion

The problem with women

Feminist politics

Culture and beauty

Eccentricities : health and the perils of recreation

The new reformation

Intellectuals in The strand

The genesis of a system

Common sense in the mid-nineteenth century

From philosophy to psychology

On goodness, perfection and the shape of living things

The meaning of life

Science and the classification of knowledge

The Spencerian foundations of liberalism

Early Victorian radicalism

Sociology as an ethical discipline

Sociology as political theory

Progress "versus" democracy.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 02 Oct 2015).

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on metadata supplied by the publisher and other sources.

ISBN:

1-315-71194-X

1-317-49346-X

1-317-49345-1

1-282-94337-5

9786612943379

1-84465-389-7

9781315711942

OCLC:

908073490