Herbert Spencer's epigenetic epistemology / C.U.M. Smith.
Abstract:
"The most important general idea in Spencer's biology was von Baer's concept of epigenesis: that development proceeded from the general to the special, that the chick ... begins as a vertebrate, differentiates first into a gallinaceous bird and finally into a domestic fowl ... It is my intention, in what follows, to examine the influence of this epigenetic paradigm in Spencer's theory of knowledge."