Abstract
MR. WARD'S little volume, with its clear thought and trenchant writing on more than one topic of current interest, will be welcomed by all students of sociology. It is a reprint of twelve chapters formerly contributed by the author to the American Journal of Sociology during the years 1895 to 1897. In the first six lectures, which bear the general title “Social Philosophy,” Mr. Ward discusses the old question of the proper position of sociology in a systematic classification of the sciences. The general philosophical position adopted is that of Comte, but the author very properly restores anthropology and psychology to their lawful position in the scheme of the sciences between biology and sociology, and insists with great force upon the very special dependence of sociological on psychological science. The most interesting feature of this part of the book is Mr. Ward' able criticism of Mr. Herbert Spencer's favourite comparison of society to a huge biological organism. Following the lead of Prof. Huxley, he shows, by irresistible arguments, that it is not the whole biological organism, but only the nervous system which really corresponds to a society, and further, that society in its present state is at best a “very low form of organism.”
Outlines of Sociology.
By Lester F. Ward. Pp. xii + 301. (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1898.)
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TAYLOR, A. Sociological Science. Nature 58, 494 (1898). https://doi.org/10.1038/058494a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/058494a0