CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 18Study and Philosophy of ReligionLegal and Social PhilosophyEvolution and Science Education

The DOI matches its Crossref record.

First Principles

Spencer, Herbert·2009·Cambridge University Press eBooks
DOI 10.1017/cbo9780511693939
Open this paper in CoChat — free account

Abstract

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.

Overview

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1017/cbo9780511693939

Cites

Statistics

Recomputing p-values needs the paper’s full text.

Verification

Claims the paper makes

This paper’s full text isn’t openly available, so its claims and self-check weren’t run. The registry and citation checks still apply.

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

Citations

Cites

Still being checked.

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Related

See all

Metadata

Authors
Spencer, H.
Corresponding author
Spencer, Herbert
Venue
Cambridge University Press eBooks
Publisher
Cambridge University Press
Published
2009-09-24
DOI
10.1017/cbo9780511693939
OpenAlex
W394779091
Cited by
17
References
0
Citations by year
2025: 1 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 3 · 2019: 11 · 2014: 1
FWCI
0.00
Type
book
Language
en
Open access
closed
Licence
www.cambridge.org/core/terms (unspecified, 339 d)
Locations
Cambridge University Press eBooks (publishedVersion)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Philosophy › Study and Philosophy of Religion
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Legal and Social Philosophy
  • Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › History and Philosophy of Science › Evolution and Science Education
Keywords
Herbert Spencer, science and religion, reconciliation of science and religion, absolute, laws of nature, limits of human knowledge, faith, evolution, philosophy of religion

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review