Herbert Spencer

On this date in 1820, Herbert Spencer was born in England. The agnostic philosopher was educated in engineering, but worked as a journalist and writer. Spencer became good friends with leading thinkers and writers, such as Thomas Huxley and novelist George Eliot. His Principles of Psychology was published in 1855, followed by a series of major works on the principles of biology, sociology, education and ethics. Spencer, in Social Statics, (1850) wrote: "Whatever fosters militarism makes for barbarism; whatever fosters peace makes for civilization." D. 1903.