"Spencer saw philosophy as a synthesis of the fundamental principles of the special sciences, a sort of scientific summa to replace the theological systems of the Middle Ages. He thought of unification in terms of development, and his whole scheme was in fact suggested to him by the evolution of biological species. In First Principles he argued that there is a fundamental law of matter, which he called the law of the persistence of force, from which it follows that nothing homogeneous can remain as such if it is acted upon, because any external force must affect some part of it differently from other parts and cause difference and variety to arise. From this, he continued, it would follow that any force that continues to act on what is homogeneous must bring about an increasing variety. This “law of the multiplication of effects,” due to an unknown and unknowable absolute force, is in Spencer's view the clue to the understanding of all development, cosmic as well as biological.... Spencer later accepted the theory that natural selection was one of the causes of biological evolution, and he himself coined the phrase “survival of the fittest” [Spencer (1864). Principles of Biology 1:444]. [© 1994-2002 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.; emphasis added]

    According to Spencer (1870), "Evolution is an integration of matter and concomitant dissipation of motion; during which the matter passes from an indefinite, incoherent homogeneity to a definite, coherent heterogeneity; and during which the retained motion undergoes a parallel transformation."

    William James (1880) (ultimately quoting the mathematician Kirkman) translated this as "Evolution is a change from a nohowish, untalkaboutable all-alikeness, to a somehowish and ingeneral-talkaboutable, not-all-alikeness, but continuous somethingelsification and stick-togetherness."

---

Spencer and James quoted in Daniel C. Dennett (1995) Darwin's Dangerous Idea. Simon & Schuster.

---