This, the revised and expanded version of Herbert Spencer's classic foray into evolutionary theory, became the third title in his Synthetic Philosophy, following "First Principles" and "The Principles of Biology." Spencer looked at mind as a function of an organism that must adapt to its environment. The brain and nervous system constitute the organ of the mind. Brains evolve as species evolve, and a key to understanding the mind is to understand the behavior that the mind allows the organism to engage in.

In the course of the book Spencer kicks up controversy after controversy. And yet it is obvious that Spencer is engaging in what John Searle calls biological naturalism, and that he takes the mind seriously, is not prone to reductionisms that have so plagued modern psychology and philosophy.

I am especially charmed by Spencer's "Transfigured Realism," a theory of metaphysics, really, explaining how the structure of the mind (so important to Kant) evolved in relationship to the environment, thus unifying experience with structure, and allowing associationism to maintain some purchase in the debate over ideas and epistemology.

Fascinating work. By no menas perfect, but fascinating.

It should be remembered that the first, one-volume edition of this work was published years before Darwin and Wallace publicized their theory of natural selection. Spencer was engaging in evolutionary psychology (EP) before Darwin. ( )