Herbert Spencer

Abstract

This chapter examines the philosophy of Herbert Spencer which, after a discussion of his epistemology, focuses on his agnostic assertion of the unknowable as a means of reconciling the spheres of religion and science. Taking first a general perspective, the chapter examines his case against the possibility of religious knowledge as well as his claim that science too deals on with symbols or appearances, before considering in more detail his specific views about space, time, matter, force, causation, and human fee will. The discussion concludes with an examination of the way in which his psychology seemingly points in two opposite directions.