First Principles

by Herbert Spencer

THE PRINCIPLES OF BIOLOGY.

Vol. I.

Part I. The Data of Biology.—Including those general truths of Physics and Chemistry with which rational Biology must set out.

II. The Inductions of Biology.—A statement of the leading generalizations which Naturalists, Physiologists, and Comparative Anatomists, have established.

III. The Evolution of Life.—Concerning the speculation commonly known as “The Development Hypothesis”—its à priori and à posteriori evidences.

Vol. II.

IV. Morphological Development.—Pointing out the relations that are everywhere traceable between organic forms and the average of the various forces to which they are subject; and seeking in the cumulative effects of such forces a theory of the forms.

V. Physiological Development.—The progressive differentiation of functions similarly traced; and similarly interpreted as consequent upon the exposure of different parts of organisms to different sets of conditions.

VI. The Laws of Multiplication.—Generalizations respecting the rates of reproduction of the various classes of plants and animals; followed by an attempt to show the dependence of these variations upon certain necessary causes.[^[2]]