The Man Versus the State

Herbert Spencer (1820–1903) — an English philosopher and sociologist, one of the founders of positivism in England, a proponent of the evolutionary theory in philosophy and sociology, the ideologist of social Darwinism. In addition, Spencer possessed undoubted talent as a writer. Jack London, Mark Twain, and Theodore Dreiser admired him. In the book “The Individual and the State,” first published in 1884, the author sets out his views on the relationship between man and the state using the example of the situation that had developed in England in his time. Spencer’s view of the changes taking place in his country in the second half of the 19th century was extremely critical; one could say he saw the degeneration of classic liberalism and the creation of what in the 20th century would be called “social liberalism.”