The Right to Ignore the State

Herbert Spencer was an incredible prophet and a magnificent defender of laissez-faire. Among his numerous works is

The Man Versus The State, first published in 1884.That book launched one of the most spirited attacks on statism ever written. Heridiculed the idea that government intervention of any kind "will work as it is intendedto work, which it never does." He drew on his tremendous knowledge of history,citing one dramatic case after another of price controls, usury laws, slum clearancelaws, and myriad other laws which, touted as compassionate policies, intensifiedhuman misery. Below is one of his essays that explores the principles of self-government, which Henry David Thoreau defended in his seminal essay, CivilDisobedience



Herbert Spencer (27 April 1820 _ 8 December 1903) was an English philosopher, biologist, anthropologist, sociologist, and prominent classical liberal political theorist of the Victorian era.



Spencer developed an all embracing conception of evolution as the progressive development of the physical world, biological organisms, the human mind, and human culture and societies. As a polymath, he contributed to a wide range of subjects, including ethics, religion, anthropology, economics, political theory, philosophy, literature, astronomy, biology, sociology, and psychology. During his lifetime he achieved tremendous authority, mainly in English speaking academia. "The only other English philosopher to have achieved anything like such widespread popularity was Bertrand Russell, and that was in the 20th century." Spencer was "the single most famous European intellectual in the closing decades of the nineteenth century" but his influence declined sharply after 1900.