| Lester Frank Ward |
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| 1841 births | |
| ward, lester frank | |
| 1913 deaths | |
| american sociologists | |
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Lester F. Ward ( June 18 , 1841 in Joliet, Illinois - April 18 , 1913 in Washington, D.C. ), American Botanist and Paleontologist and Sociologist , first president of the American Sociological Association . Lester Ward believed that , Sociocracy and Public Sociology A sociology which intelligently and scientifically directed the social and economic development of society should institute a universal and comprehensive system of Education , regulate Competition , connect the people together on the basis of equal opportunities and Cooperation , and promote the Happiness and the Freedom of everyone. Ward was a strong advocate for equal rights for women and even theorized that women were naturally superior to men, much to the scorn of main stream sociologists. Ward placed himself in direct opposition to Social Darwinism , especially the work of Herbert Spencer (Ward admired much of Spencer's work but thought that Spencer had lost his way when he tried to apply his ideas to the world of government and politics) and Spencer's American disciple, William Graham Sumner , who gained great fame (and wealth) in the American business community by single-mindedly promoting the principles of laissez faire and survival of the fittest. To quote Henry Steele Commager : "Ward was the first major scholar to attack this whole system of negativist and absolutist sociology and he remains the ablest....Before Ward could begin to formulate that science of society which he hoped would inaugurate an era of such progress as the world had not yet seen, he had to destroy the superstitions that still held domain over the mind of his generation. Of these, laissez faire was the most stupefying, and it was on the doctrine of laissez faire that he trained his heaviest guns. The work of demolition performed in Dynamic Sociology, Psychic Factors and Applied Sociology was thorough." QUOTES "Every implement or utensil, every mechanical device...is a triumph of mind over the physical forces of nature in ceaseless and aimless competition. All human institutions--religion, govenment, law, marriage, custom--together with innumerable other modes of regulating social, industrial and commercial life are, broadly viewed, only so many ways of meeting and checkmating the principle of competition as it manifests itself in society." --Lester Ward "Thus far, social progress has in a certain awkward manner taken care of itself, but in the near future it will have to be cared for. To do this, and maintain the dynamic condition against all the hostile forces which thicken with every new advance, is the real problem of sociology considered as an applied science" --Lester Ward "...it is not just my own belief but a well-established scientific fact that most change is for the worse: any change increases entropy (unavailable energy). Therefore, any change that produces no net positive good is invariably harmful. Progress, then, does not consist of destroying good things in the mere hope that the things that will replace them will be better (they will not be) but in retaining good things while adding more." --Gene Wolfe LITERATURE
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