ABSTRACT
Ward, Lester Frank (1841-1913). American palaeobotanist and sociologist, his systematic sociology hardly influenced American thought on the subject, although subsequently he has been venerated as one of its founding fathers. He was more interested in studying the functioning of society than its structure. Borrowing his ideas both from Comte and Spencer, he asserted that the four stages of evolution were cosmogeny, biogeny, anthropogeny and sociogeny. Like Comte, he distinguished between social statics and social dynamics; the former deals with the formation of structures and with equilibration, the latter with social processes. Besides ‘pure’ sociology, he described ‘applied’ sociology which is concerned with what he called social telesis, or purposive action by man designed to influence his condition. Synergy is a major factor in the formation, equilibration and development of structures; a creative synthesis, it moulds antithetical social forces into new forms. The three basic principles of social dynamics are differences of social potential, innovation and conation. He was interested in sociological laws such as the law of least effort, which is measured in terms of pain and pleasure. He favoured the comparative method, but his anti-individualistic outlook failed to commend itself to American public opinion, especially as he believed in state action to reform society based on the sociologically informed will of the electorate. His ideas were very Comtean. Ward’s main works were: Dynamic Sociology, 1883; Psychic Factors of Civilisation, 1893; Outlines of Sociology, 1898; Pure Sociology, 1903; and Applied Sociology, 1906.
