First Principles

Herbert Spencer considers the meaning of knowledge and the impulse to diversity that underlies the universe.

Herbert Spencer (Author)

9781108004183, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 24 September 2009

524 pages
21.6 x 14 x 3 cm, 0.66 kg

In 1862, the British philosopher Herbert Spencer (1820–1903) published this preamble to a planned series of publications on biology, psychology, sociology and morality. In it, he states that religion and science can be reconciled by their shared belief in an Absolute, and that ultimate principles can be discerned in all manifestations of the Absolute, particularly the general laws of nature being discovered by science. Spencer divides his text into two parts. Part I, 'The Unknowable', discusses early philosophical ideas that human knowledge is limited and cannot meaningfully conceive of God; faith must be the bridge between human experience and ultimate truth. Spencer refutes this as he examines religion and science in detail. In Part II, 'Laws of the Knowable', Spencer argues that religion and science can be reconciled in the underlying unity from which the visible complexity of the universe has evolved.

Preface
Part I. The Unknowable: 1. Religion and science
2. Ultimate religious ideas
3. Ultimate scientific ideas
4. The relativity of all knowledge
5. The reconciliation
Part II. Laws of the Knowable: 1. Laws in general
2. The law of evolution
3. The law of evolution (continued)
4. The causes of evolution
5. Space, time, matter, motion and force
6. The indestructibility of matter
7. The continuity of motion
8. The persistence of force
9. The correlation and equivalence of forces
10. The direction of motion
11. The rhythm of motion
12. The conditions essential to evolution
13. The instability of the homogeneous
14. The multiplication of effects
15. Differentiation and integration
16. Equilibration
17. Summary and conclusion.

Subject Areas: Philosophy of religion [HRAB]