First Principles

This is the first American edition of Herbert Spencer's classic work, the first volume of his Synthetic Philosophy. On this aged paper and between these green boards one can find the first mature statement of Spencer's rather unique take on evolution. Later editions expanded Spencer's basic model, so reading this volume is important for the history of ideas.

I've written elsewhere about the main argument of the first section of the book, "The Unknowable." It's not a thesis I find particularly persuasive, nor a formulation I find compelling. But it has something going for it. (See my essay on Instead of a Blog.) Besides, it gave George Santayana a good excuse to restate Spencer's main point in far more sophisticated terms, in his lecture show more "The Unknowable" ("Obiter Scripta") . . . which is itself one of the classic essays in philosophy, and the lynchpin to Santayana's fascinating and nonsense-free ontology.

The second section is called "The Laws of the Knowable," and tries to set up a general systems theory of science, built around the notion of evolution. And by that he didn't mean "descent with modification" (which is not evolution at all), but a kind of progress, an increase in differentiation and unification. A fascinating work, marking a watershed moment in human thought. show less

This is the foundation for Herbert Spencer's philosophical "synthesis," what he called his "Synthetic Philosophy." In this volume he lays out a metaphysics and, upon a theory of relative knowledge, his schema for evolution.

Though his conception of evolution has much to recommend it, science has mutated away from his position. The agnostic metaphysics in the first part, "The Unknowable," has even less to say for it (by most lights), and yet it is extremely readable. There are many passages of brilliance, and, as 19th century attempts at metaphysics go, one of the few worth returning to.

A challenging work, very clear, now hopelessly out of fashion, but charming and worth reading nonetheless.