Herbert Spencer

Herbert Spencer was an English philosopher and sociologist who developed an ambitious evolutionary synthesis applying the idea of progressive development to biology, psychology, and society alike. He coined the phrase survival of the fittest, which Charles Darwin later adopted, and in works such as The Principles of Sociology he described societies as organisms that evolve from simple, undifferentiated forms toward greater complexity, differentiation, and integration. His organicist, evolutionary view of society and his advocacy of minimal state interference made him one of the most widely read social theorists of the late nineteenth century and a central reference point, positive and negative, for later sociology.