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First published 1855

The Principles of Psychology

The Principles of Psychology by Herbert Spencer is available as a free PDF and EPUB download at freecapitalists.org.

Author
Herbert Spencer
First published
1855
Format
PDF and EPUB
Pages
375
Publisher
London: Longman, Brown, Green and Longmans, 1855; Online Library of Liberty edition
License
Public domain by publication date.

Herbert Spencer's first edition of 1855, the book in which he applies the idea of evolution to the mind. It treats reasoning, perception, the nature of life, intelligence, feeling, and the will, and presents mental faculties as the product of adaptation to the environment over time. He rewrote and greatly expanded the work in later editions.

Questions

About this book and this copy

Is The Principles of Psychology free to download?
Yes. The complete 375-page PDF and EPUB downloads directly from this page (2.2 MB). There is no signup, no account and no paywall.
How long is The Principles of Psychology?
375 pages, 59 chapters, and about 202,994 words in the edition this archive serves.
Who wrote The Principles of Psychology?
Herbert Spencer (1820–1903) was one of the leading 19th-century English radical individualists. He began working as a journalist for the laissez-faire magazine The Economist in the 1850s. This archive holds 15 of Spencer's works.

What's in it

59 chapters · 202,994 words · free to read here

  1. PREFACE.
  2. CONTENTS.
  3. CHAPTER I.: A DATUM WANTED.
  4. CHAPTER II.: THE UNIVERSAL POSTULATE.
  5. CHAPTER III.: ITS COROLLARIES.
  6. CHAPTER IV.: OUR PRESENT POSITION.
  7. CHAPTER I.: COMPOUND QUANTITATIVE REASONING.
  8. CHAPTER II.: COMPOUND QUANTITATIVE REASONING (CONTINUED).
  9. CHAPTER III.: IMPERFECT AND SIMPLE QUANTITATIVE REASONING.
  10. CHAPTER IV.: QUANTITATIVE REASONING IN GENERAL.
  11. CHAPTER V.: PERFECT QUALITATIVE REASONING.
  12. CHAPTER VI.: IMPERFECT QUALITATIVE REASONING.
  13. CHAPTER VII.: REASONING IN GENERAL.
  14. CHAPTER VIII.: CLASSIFICATION, NAMING, AND RECOGNITION.
  15. CHAPTER IX.: THE PERCEPTION OF SPECIAL OBJECTS.
  16. CHAPTER X.: THE PERCEPTION OF BODY AS PRESENTING DYNAMICAL, STATICO-DYNAMICAL, AND STATICAL ATTRIBUTES.∗
  17. CHAPTER XI.: THE PERCEPTION OF BODY AS PRESENTING STATICO-DYNAMICAL AND STATICAL ATTRIBUTES.
  18. CHAPTER XII.: THE PERCEPTION OF BODY AS PRESENTING STATICAL ATTRIBUTES.
  19. CHAPTER XIII.: THE PERCEPTION OF SPACE.
  20. CHAPTER XIV.: THE PERCEPTION OF TIME.
  21. CHAPTER XV.: THE PERCEPTION OF MOTION.
  22. CHAPTER XVI.: THE PERCEPTION OF RESISTANCE.
  23. CHAPTER XVII.: PERCEPTION IN GENERAL.
  24. CHAPTER XVIII.: THE RELATIONS OF SIMILARITY AND DISSIMILARITY.
  25. CHAPTER XIX.: THE RELATIONS OF COINTENSION AND NON-COINTENSION.
  26. CHAPTER XX.: THE RELATIONS OF COEXTENSION AND NON-COEXTENSION.
  27. CHAPTER XXI.: THE RELATIONS OF COEXISTENCE AND NON-COEXISTENCE.
  28. CHAPTER XXII.: THE RELATIONS OF CONNATURE AND NON-CONNATURE.
  29. CHAPTER XXIII.: THE RELATIONS OF LIKENESS AND UNLIKENESS.
  30. CHAPTER XXIV.: THE RELATION OF SEQUENCE.
  31. CHAPTER XXV.: CONSCIOUSNESS IN GENERAL.
  32. CHAPTER XXVI.: RESULTS.
  33. CHAPTER I.: METHOD.
  34. CHAPTER II.: CONNEXION OF MIND AND LIFE.
  35. CHAPTER III.: PROXIMATE DEFINITION OF LIFE.
  36. CHAPTER IV.: THE CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN LIFE AND ITS CIRCUMSTANCES.
  37. CHAPTER V.: THE DEGREE OF LIFE VARIES AS THE DEGREE OF CORRESPONDENCE.
  38. CHAPTER VI.: THE CORRESPONDENCE AS DIRECT AND HOMOGENEOUS.
  39. CHAPTER VII.: THE CORRESPONDENCE AS DIRECT BUT HETEROGENEOUS.
  40. CHAPTER VIII.: THE CORRESPONDENCE AS EXTENDING IN SPACE.
  41. CHAPTER IX.: THE CORRESPONDENCE AS EXTENDING IN TIME.
  42. CHAPTER X.: THE CORRESPONDENCE AS INCREASING IN SPECIALITY.
  43. CHAPTER XI.: THE CORRESPONDENCE AS INCREASING IN GENERALITY.
  44. CHAPTER XII.: THE CORRESPONDENCE AS INCREASING IN COMPLEXITY.
  45. CHAPTER XIII.: THE CO-ORDINATION OF CORRESPONDENCES.
  46. CHAPTER XIV.: THE INTEGRATION OF CORRESPONDENCES.
  47. CHAPTER XV.: THE CORRESPONDENCES IN THEIR TOTALITY.
  48. CHAPTER I.: THE NATURE OF INTELLIGENCE.
  49. CHAPTER II.: THE LAW OF INTELLIGENCE.
  50. CHAPTER III.: THE GROWTH OF INTELLIGENCE.
  51. CHAPTER IV.: REFLEX ACTION.
  52. CHAPTER V.: INSTINCT.
  53. CHAPTER VI.: MEMORY.
  54. CHAPTER VII.: REASON.
  55. CHAPTER VIII.: THE FEELINGS.
  56. CHAPTER IX.: THE WILL.
  57. About Liberty Fund
  58. The Online Library of Liberty
  59. Copyright Information
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Herbert Spencer 1820–1903

Herbert Spencer (1820–1903) was one of the leading 19th-century English radical individualists. He began working as a journalist for the laissez-faire magazine The Economist in the 1850s. Read more about Herbert Spencer.

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