Lester Frank Ward - Définition

Féminisme

Ward était un excellent avocat pour l'égalité des droits des femmes. Il a même théorisé que les femmes étaient naturellement supérieures aux hommes, bien au-delà du bien-pensant des sociologues traditionnels. Ward est maintenant considéré par des historiens comme un auteur féministe tel qu'Ann Taylor Allen.

Principaux travaux

• Guide to the Flora of Washington, D.C and Vicinity. 1881.
• Dynamic Sociology. Or Applied social science as based upon statical sociology and the less complex sciences (2 vols.) 1883, 1897.
• Sketch of Paleo-Botany, 1885.
• Synopsis of the Flora of the Laramie Group 1886.
• Types of the Laramie Flora 1887.
• The Psychic Factors of Civilization. 1893, 1906
• Contributions to Social Philosophy. 1895-97.
• Outlines of Sociology 1898.
• Contemporary Sociology. 1902
• Pure Sociology. A Treatise on the Origin and Spontaneous Development of Society 1903
• A Text-Book of Sociology. 1905
• Applied Sociology. A Treatise on the Conscious Improvement of Society by Society. 1906.
• Glimpses of the Cosmos. A Mental Autobiography. (6 vols) 1913-1918

Citations originales

« 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, government, 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

« And now from the point of view of intellectual development it self we find her side by side, and shoulder to shoulder with him furnishing, from the very outset, far back in prehistoric, presocial, and even prehuman times, the necessary complement to his otherwise one-sided, headlong, and wayward career, without which he would soon have warped and distorted the race and rendered it incapable of the very progress which he claims exclusively to inspire. And herefore again, even in the realm of intellect, where he would fain reign supreme, she has proved herself fully his equal and is entitled to her share of whatever credit attaches to human progress hereby achieved. »

— Lester Ward

Citations traduites

Sur l'oeuvre de Ward

• John C. Burnham, Lester Frank Ward in American thought. Washington, D.C., 1956.
• S. Chugerman, Lester F. Ward, The American Aristotle (1939, repr. 1965).
• Edward C. Rafferty, Apostle of Human Progress. Lester Frank Ward and American Political Thought, 1841/1913. Lanham, Boulder, New York, Oxford, 2003.
• Chapitre 4 de Richard Hofstadter, Social Darwinism in American Thought (original 1944, 1955; reprint Boston: Beacon Press, 1992).
• James J. Chriss, (2006): « The Place of Lester Ward among the Sociological Classics », Journal of Classical Sociology 6 (1): 5-21.
• Henry Steele Commager, The American Mind; Chapter 10: « Lester Ward and the Science of Society »«  »; Yale University Press; 1950.
• Ernest Becker, Escape From Evil; Free Press, reissue edition; 1985.
• Barbara Finlay, Lester Frank Ward as a Sociologist Of Gender: A New Look at His Sociological Work; Gender & Society, Vol. 13, No. 2, 251-265 (1999)
• Diane Ravitch, Left Back: A Century of Failed School Reforms; Simon & Schuster; Chapter one: « The Educational Ladder »
• Adelheid Mers, Fusion (graphic art, needs to be magnified)
• Edward C. Rafferty, The Right to the Use of the Earth: Herbert Spencer, the Washington Intellectual Community, and American Conservation in the Late Nineteenth Century;
• Lewis A. Coser, A History of Sociological Analysis, Basic Books, New York