Herbert Spencer

Herbert Spencer (April 27, 1820 – December 8, 1903) was an English philosopher, biologist, anthropologist, sociologist, and prominent classical liberal political theorist of the Victorian era. He developed an all-embracing conception of evolution as the progressive development of the physical world, biological organisms, the human mind, and human culture and societies. Spencer is best known for coining the expression "survival of the fittest", which he did in Principles of Biology (1864), after reading Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species. Yet as Spencer extended evolution into realms of sociology and ethics, he also made use of Lamarckism.

He contributed to a wide range of subjects, including ethics, religion, anthropology, economics, political theory, philosophy, literature, biology, sociology, and psychology. During his lifetime he achieved tremendous authority, mainly in English-speaking academia.

Mme. Blavatsky's view

Spencer's reputation among the Victorians owed a great deal to his agnosticism, and was to gain much notoriety from his repudiation of traditional religion