Herbert Spencer was born in 1820 in Derby, England. He was the eldest of nine children. As a child, he was often ill, and this prevented him from attending school. Instead, he received private tutoring from his father and his uncle.

In 1837, Spencer began working as an engineer for the railways, a position he held until 1841. In 1848, he joined The Economist as an editor, where he wrote radically liberal essays. His life took a turn in 1853, when he inherited a substantial fortune from his late uncle.

Spencer wrote A System of Synthetic Philosophy. a ten-volume opus that includes The Principles of Sociology, published between 1876 and 1896. This made him world-famous. Spencer applied the notion of evolution, not only to biology but also to sociology. He argued that societies, like biological species, evolved from simplicity to complexity, becoming more structured and specialized over time.

Spencer used metaphore, such as comparing contract relations to the body tissue, aristocracy to fat, and art academies to the eye. These comparisons were used as scaffolding to build a body of sociological insights.

He was an early social evolutionist. Spencer's idea of "survival of the fittest" appeared in his writings as early as 1850, seven years before Darwin's "The Origin of Species."

Spencer acknowledged the possibility of different societies following distinct evolutionary paths. He did not insist on a unilinear or rectilinear evolution; he recognized that regression and decline were possible.

There was a paradox in Spencer's work. While he leaned toward methodological individualism and nominalism - individuals shape societies - his organicist perspective suggested that societies as wholes had autonomous properties which displayed continuity and persistence.

In the 20th century, Spencer's ambitious philosophical theories fell out of favor, as societies moved away from comprehensive approaches. His strong advocacy of liberalism and conservatism became less fashionable, especially in welfare states. His biological and organicistic views on society were also criticized.

Nevertheless, in recent times, Herbert Spencer's contributions to sociology have become of renewed interest. He is considered a foundational figure in modern functionalism, and his evolutionism is being reevaluated. His ability to connect biology and sociology has found new relevance, and his theories on the expansion and differentiation of interdependent networks inspire contemporary sociological thought. Spencer's insights into the obstacles to objectivity, including educational, patriotic, class, political, and theological biases, also remain a subject of study.