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The Enlightenment and the origins of the notion of evolution The Enlightenment and the origins of the notion of evolution
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Beyond England Beyond England
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Reason, science, power, and God Reason, science, power, and God
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Scientists, aristocrats, and entrepreneurs Scientists, aristocrats, and entrepreneurs
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The philosophers of the eighteenth century The philosophers of the eighteenth century
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Reason, the vegetable world, and medicine Reason, the vegetable world, and medicine
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Freedom and population Freedom and population
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Evolution or design? Evolution or design?
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2 The origins of the Spencerian theory of evolution
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Published:May 2016
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Abstract
Conscious of the need to explain clearly the fundamental ideas of Spencer, as a preliminary to establishing what ‘the scientists’ made of them, this chapter concentrates upon his theory of evolution. This serves in part to reveal the differences between his philosophy and that of Comte and other important thinkers in Britain and elsewhere of the nineteenth century. It also shows how Spencer gathered together the knowledge and the notion of the world as part of a universal system governed by immutable laws, which ever since the time of Isaac Newton, had been present in British culture, shaping the identity of Victorian Britain, which Spencer captured and unified in order to give it a universal meaning. The chapter concludes with an explanation of the reasons for the popularity of his elegant model for the universe, led by the immanent law of evolution, with tycoons in the United States such as Andrew Carnegie and Edward Livingstone Youmans, who provided him with financial support
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