Ward, Lester Frank
Ward, Lester Frank( 1841–1913),sociologist who, in addition to writing many works on the natural sciences, developed a theory that the human mind, when honestly and scientifically instructed, can take an active rather than a passive part in planning the process of human evolution, thus proceeding beyond the bounds of the ordinary evolutionary hypothesis. These ideas are developed in such books as Dynamic Sociology (1883), The Psychic Factors of Civilization (1893), and Pure Sociology (1903). His Glimpses of the Cosmos (6 vols., 1913–18) reprints many of his works in their biographical context, developing what he called his “mental autobiography.”
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