In ‘The Principles of Sociology’ Spencer rejected the sociology of Auguste Comte’s positivism and made some valuable contributions to early sociology, attempting to reformulate social science in terms of evolutionary biology. A ‘social organism’ evolved from the simpler state to the more complex according to the universal law of evolution. Spencer’s theories of laissez-faire, survival-of-the-fittest and minimal human interference in the processes of natural law had an enduring influence on thinkers and politicians such as Friedrich Hayek, Milton Friedman and Margaret Thatcher.
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Herbert Spencer (27 April 1820 – 8 December 1903) is one of the most discussed English thinkers of the Victorian era. As a polymath he wrote about many different subjects; some of his most important works are a series of volumes discussing ‘The Principles of Biology’, ‘The Principles of Sociology’, ‘The Principles of Ethics’ and ‘The the Principles of Psychology’.