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HERBERT SPENCER
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I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
English philosopher and sociologist who applied the theory of natural selection to human societies (1820-1903)
Synonyms:
Herbert Spencer; Spencer
Classified under:
Instance hypernyms:
philosopher (a specialist in philosophy)
sociologist (a social scientist who studies the institutions and development of human society)
Context examples:
Doubts arose in Martin's mind, and had he been less strongly individual he would have accepted the general opinion and given Herbert Spencer up.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
Overdue would tell a story that would be true of its particular characters and its particular events; but it would tell, too, he was confident, great vital things that would be true of all time, and all sea, and all life—thanks to Herbert Spencer, he thought, leaning back for a moment from the table.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
At home was several hours' hack-work waiting for him before he went to bed, and after he went to bed there was a volume of Weismann waiting for him, to say nothing of Herbert Spencer's Autobiography, which was as replete for him with romance as any thrilling novel.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
Martin was puzzled as to what the discussion was about, but when he rode on to the library he carried with him a new-born interest in Herbert Spencer, and because of the frequency with which the tramp had mentioned First Principles, Martin drew out that volume.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
Herbert Spencer did that.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
I don't think you have read ten pages of Spencer, but there have been critics, assumably more intelligent than you, who have read no more than you of Spencer, who publicly challenged his followers to adduce one single idea from all his writings—from Herbert Spencer's writings, the man who has impressed the stamp of his genius over the whole field of scientific research and modern thought; the father of psychology; the man who revolutionized pedagogy, so that to-day the child of the French peasant is taught the three R's according to principles laid down by him.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
Battle royal was waged, amid the smoking of many cigarettes and the expectoration of much tobacco-juice, wherein the tramp successfully held his own, even when a socialist workman sneered, There is no god but the Unknowable, and Herbert Spencer is his prophet.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
Arthur and Norman, he found, believed in evolution and had read Spencer, though it did not seem to have made any vital impression upon them, while the young fellow with the glasses and the mop of hair, Will Olney, sneered disagreeably at Spencer and repeated the epigram, There is no god but the Unknowable, and Herbert Spencer is his prophet.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
Martin had heard Herbert Spencer quoted several times in the park, but one afternoon a disciple of Spencer's appeared, a seedy tramp with a dirty coat buttoned tightly at the throat to conceal the absence of a shirt.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
