Herbert Spencer (1820-1903)

We intend, first of all, to show that this law of organic progress is the law of all progress. It is in the development of the earth, whether in life over its superiority, or in society, government, industry, commerce, language, literature, science, art, that same evolution, from the simplest to the most complex, is what is verified everywhere through successive differences. From the first cosmic changes that can be pointed out to the last resltations of civilization, we find that the transformation of the homogeneous into the heterogeneous is essentially what consists of Spencer progress , progress, its law and its cause.

Spencer's work had a great influence as it made a notable application of the evolutionary principle to biology, psychology, sociology and ethics. Along with Comte he is considered one of the founders of sociology, although he differs from his questions. For him, society is an 'organism' that possesses only awareness of its components (individuals) and evolves slowly, when individuals have often repeated feelings and ideas that may be the basis for fundamental change. Like other English thinkers, Spencer remains faithful to liberalism and opposes social reformism. Revolutions, pretending to accelerate evolution, can do nothing but disturb it.

por Graciela Paula Caldeiro