Herbert Spencer Quotes
During human progress, every science is evolved out of its corresponding art.
Spencer, Herbert. "The Genesis of Science." Essays: Scientific, Political, and Speculative, Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans, and Roberts, 1858.
The societies that had regularly produced the great advances in the sciences were those that allowed its citizens much liberty—liberty of thought, expression, association, etc. Where religious dogma controlled thought and expression, great scientific achievements were far less probable or less productive. Imagine, what Galileo might have achieved if the Church had not curtailed his efforts. When Islamic society was open, the sciences flourished whereas they were stifled in Christian Europe, but once Islam closed and liberty was no more, Islamic science degenerated to its low point of the 21st century.
Although a conservative Republican, he and most other CEOs of modern companies do not denigrate and ignore science the way many other conservatives have done over the years.
Note that the only reason given in the constitution for protecting intellectual property was to promote the progress of science and useful arts. Inventors, would keep secret their inventions and techniques of manufacture and use in order to protect their economic interests. No one else would be able to benefit by understanding the invention and taking it further and increasing knowledge and understanding. So the Founding Fathers told Congress to establish a system where inventors would get a guarantee of a reasonable time to profit exclusively from the invention in exchange for making the invention public. The plans, methods and drawings had to be made public and until the 20th century a model of an invention had to be supplied to the Patent Office. Anyone could get an inexpensive copy of any patent and come and study the models. Today, most people believe that the reason for a patent system is to protect the intellectual property of the inventor, but that was not a purpose or even a serious consideration. The reason however was educational and to demystify technology and produce more science and technology which it did.
Herbert Spencer was an English philosopher, biologist, anthropologist, and sociologist famous for his hypothesis of social Darwinism whereby superior physical force shapes history. Spencer originated the expression "survival of the fittest", which he coined in Principles of Biology (1864) after reading Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species. The term strongly suggests natural selection, yet Spencer saw evolution as extending into realms of sociology and ethics, so he also supported Lamarckism.
