Outlines of Sociology (1898; Reprint 1913)
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Lester F. Ward: Outlines of Sociology (1898; reprint 1913) [i] OUTLINES OF SOCIOLOGY - by Lester F. Ward - (1897; reprint 1913) Page 1 of 313 Lester F. Ward: Outlines of Sociology (1898; reprint 1913) [ii] Page 2 of 313 Lester F. Ward: Outlines of Sociology (1898; reprint 1913) [iii] OUTLINES OF SOCIOLOGY BY LESTER F. WARD AUTHOR OF "DYNAMIC SOCIOLOGY," "THE PSYCHIC FACTORS OF CIVILIZATION," ETC. New York THE MACMILLAN COMPANY LONDON: MACMILLAN & CO., LTD. 1913 All rights reserved Page 3 of 313 Lester F. Ward: Outlines of Sociology (1898; reprint 1913) [iv] COPYRIGHT, 1897, BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY. --------- Set up and electrotyped January, 1898. Reprinted June, 1899; February, 1904; August, 1909; March, 1913. Norwood Press J. S. Cushing & Co. – Berwick & Smith Norwood Mass. U.S.A. Page 4 of 313 Lester F. Ward: Outlines of Sociology (1898; reprint 1913) [v] To Dr. Albion W. Small THE FIRST TO DRAW ATTENTION TO THE EDUCATIONAL VALUE OF MY SOCIAL PHILOSOPHY THE STANCH DEFENDER OF MY METHOD IN SOCIOLOGY AND TO WHOM THE PRIOR APPEARANCE OF THESE CHAPTERS IS DUE THIS WORK IS GRATEFULLY DEDICATED Page 5 of 313 Lester F. Ward: Outlines of Sociology (1898; reprint 1913) [vi] Page 6 of 313 Lester F. Ward: Outlines of Sociology (1898; reprint 1913) [vii] PREFACE This little work has been mainly the outcome of a course of lectures which I delivered at the School of Sociology of the Hartford Society for Education Extension in 1894 and 1895. They were given merely from notes in six lectures the first of these years, and expanded into twelve lectures the following year in substantially their present form. The American Journal of Sociology having been instituted in that year, I was requested to contribute, and one of the twelve lectures appeared in each number from its first issue, that of July, 1895, until its twelfth, that of May, 1897, forming an uninterrupted series. The general name for this series of papers was “Contributions to Social Philosophy." For the first six of these papers, or one half of the series, this appellation is sufficiently appropriate, since they treat mainly of the relation of sociology to other cognate sciences. Since it has been perceived that science consists in the discovery of truth and not in the accumulation of facts, the distinction between Page 7 of 313 Lester F. Ward: Outlines of Sociology (1898; reprint 1913) [viii] science and philosophy has become less clear than it was formerly supposed to be. It is certain that the scientific progress of the world has been the result of thought applied to phenomena; and this surely is something very near to philosophy. Professor Robert Flint, in his History of the Philosophy of History, says: "No special science is excluded from having the closest connection with and interest in philosophy, so that each special science, and even every special subject, may be naturally said to have its philosophy; the philosophy of a subject as distinguished from its science being the view or theory of the relations of the subject to other subjects and to the known world in general, as distinguished from the view or theory of it as isolated or in itself."(1*) Professor George G. Wilson of Brown University, in a paper read before the Social Science Association,(2*) adopts this definition of Professor Flint for Social Philosophy, which has at least the merit of once more clearly differentiating philosophy from science, and is to be recommended for all the other sciences. I do not hesitate to apply it to the first part of this work. For the second part, however, the name social _____ 1) Historical Philosophy in France and French Belgium and Switzerland, 1894, New York, p. 20. 2) “The Place of Social Philosophy," Journal of Social Science, No. XXXII., November, 1894, pp. 139-143. Page 8 of 313 Lester F. Ward: Outlines of Sociology (1898; reprint 1913) [ix] philosophy is not applicable in the same sense, but only in the older more general sense in which the term philosophy is practically synonymous with science, albeit the science is treated very broadly. I therefore conclude to divide the work into two parts, calling the first Social Philosophy, and the second Social Science. As regards the general name for the whole work, it seems to be quite correct to designate the whole as Outlines of Sociology; the term being used in a very literal sense for the first part, and in the ordinary sense for the second. The primary task has been, as it were, to bound the science - to mark it off from other sciences, hem it in, and clearly differentiate it. The second task has been to sketch it in broad outlines calculated to bring out its true character unobscured by detail. Part I. may be looked upon as the frame and setting of a pen sketch embodied in Part II. Looked at from a somewhat different point of view, the earlier chapters may be regarded as aiming to show what sociology is not, while the later ones have for their object to set forth in broad outlines what sociology is. It has appeared to me that these two objects are of prime importance in the present state of opinion respecting this science, when so many conflicting views are current as to its true nature and scope. No question is more frequently asked me than how I Page 9 of 313 Lester F. Ward: Outlines of Sociology (1898; reprint 1913) [x] would define sociology; and nevertheless I have observed that contemporary works on sociology teem with definitions of the science, many entirely different ones occurring in the same work. Indeed, I am almost the only one who has written on the subject who has not ventured one or more definitions. This has been because it has been apparent to me that it is not definitions that are needed, but clear explanations and definite delimitations of its field. It is these that the present work aims to supply from the standpoint of its author, who would not thereby deny the claims of others who look at the subject from other standpoints. L. F. W. WASHINGTON, November 5, 1897. Page 10 of 313 Lester F. Ward: Outlines of Sociology (1898; reprint 1913) [xi] CONTENTS PART I SOCIAL PHILOSOPHY CHAPTER I PAGE THE PLACE OF SOCIOLOGY AMONG THE SCIENCES 3 CHAPTER II RELATION OF SOCIOLOGY TO COSMOLOGY 21 CHAPTER III RELATION OF SOCIOLOGY TO BIOLOGY 43 CHAPTER IV RELATION OF SOCIOLOGY TO ANTHROPOLOGY 64 CHAPTER V RELATION OF SOCIOLOGY TO PSYCHOLOGY 94 CHAPTER VI THE DATA OF SOCIOLOGY 116 Page 11 of 313 Lester F. Ward: Outlines of Sociology (1898; reprint 1913) [xii] PART II SOCIAL SCIENCE CHAPTER VII PAGE THE SOCIAL FORCES 139 CHAPTER VIII THE MECHANICS OF SOCIETY 160 CHAPTER IX THE PURPOSE OF SOCIOLOGY 191 CHAPTER X SOCIAL GENESIS 213 CHAPTER XI INDIVIDUAL TELESIS 234 CHAPTER XII COLLECTIVE TELESIS 282 ------------------ INDEX 295 Page 12 of 313 Lester F. Ward: Outlines of Sociology (1898; reprint 1913) [1] PART I SOCIAL PHILOSOPHY Page 13 of 313 Lester F. Ward: Outlines of Sociology (1898; reprint 1913) [2] Page 14 of 313 Lester F. Ward: Outlines of Sociology (1898; reprint 1913) [3] CHAPTER I THE PLACE OF SOCIOLOGY AMONG THE SCIENCES (1*) The word sociology first appeared in print in its French form “sociologie" in the fourth volume of Auguste Comte's Positive Philosophy, the first edition of which was published in 1839. The author's “avertissement" prefixed to that volume is dated December 23, 1838, so that the word must have been penned during the year 1838 or earlier. That edition has long been exhausted and is accessible to few, but in the third edition of 1869, which is perhaps the best known to the public, the word occurs on page 185 of Vol. IV. In a footnote the author says: - I think I should venture, from this time on, to employ this term, the exact equivalent of my expression social physics already introduced, in order to be able to designate by a single name that complementary part of natural philosophy which relates to the positive study of all the fundamental laws proper to social phenomena. The necessity for such a denomination to correspond to the special aim of this volume will, I hope, excuse here this last exercise of a legitimate right, which I believe I have _____ 1) American Journal of Sociology, Vol. I., No. 1, Chicago, July, 1895, pp. 16-27. Page 15 of 313 Lester F. Ward: Outlines of Sociology (1898; reprint 1913) [4] always used with all due circumspection, and without ceasing to feel a strong repugnance to the practice of systematic neologism. The world is certainly greatly indebted to Comte for this word, as it is also for that other useful word of his, altruism. Words are the tools of thought, and ideas can no more progress without words than can the arts without instruments and machinery. Although the word sociology is derived from both Latin and Greek, still it is fully justified by the absence in the Greek language of the most essential component. While it need not altogether replace the virtually synonymous expression social science, it can be used in many cases where that could not. It tends to give compactness to the general conception and to unify the nomenclature of the sciences. In doing so it also adds somewhat both qualitatively and quantitatively to the thought. We all know what an improvement physics has been upon natural philosophy, and biology(1*) upon natural history. Sociology stands in about the same relation to the old philosophy of history, but any one can see how greatly it modifies and amplifies that conception.