Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Annotated Chapter from Applied Sociology
Below you can find a copy of chapter 3 of Ward's Applied Sociology,
the last of his trilogy of books establishing his views of sociology (Pure Sociology and Dynamic Sociology
make up the other two components). In this chapter, Ward discusses what
he sees as the purpose of Sociology as working to better the human
condition through a reduction of pain that people suffer and an
increase in pleasure. Through this chapter, some of the doctrines that
fueled the New Deal and modern liberalism can be seen fairly clearly,
particularly in the discussion of the new ethics. Ward was an idealist,
seeking to cure the world of the pain it suffered through exploitation
of man, but he was also a pragmatist trying to determine the components
of the problem and engineering a solution in an attempt to reach the
ultimate goal of alleviating suffering. It should be noted, that I
don't believe Ward would have seen himself as an idealist (or even as
an optimist), I think he believed himself to be a realist working for
solutions he truly felt were possible to achieve if people simply tried.
Applied_sociology_Chapter3.pdf
The classic film, Metropolis, illustrates the pessimistic world view that Ward was trying to overcome by instituting changes in the social system that would free workers from being mindless drones without the violent revolutions or complete overthrow of the system called for by Marx (although Marx did later view change as possible without violence):
Also, check out this YouTube movie discussing the New Deal, which used many of Ward's ideas of applied sociology to engineer a society that relieved suffering and increased pleasure of the people. The video mentions Gallup's role in applying some of the ideas but does not credit Ward conceptualizing the original theoretical underpinnings.
And, just for fun, here's a right wing video discussing the New Deal as a failure and how Obama's New Deal is "equally doomed". Part of Ward's "fall from grace" stems from the views of some that the New Deal was a failure and that it proved social engineering for the betterment of mankind does not work in the same way as he envisioned it would, so I thought this video represented that view.
Applied_sociology_Chapter3.pdf
The classic film, Metropolis, illustrates the pessimistic world view that Ward was trying to overcome by instituting changes in the social system that would free workers from being mindless drones without the violent revolutions or complete overthrow of the system called for by Marx (although Marx did later view change as possible without violence):
Also, check out this YouTube movie discussing the New Deal, which used many of Ward's ideas of applied sociology to engineer a society that relieved suffering and increased pleasure of the people. The video mentions Gallup's role in applying some of the ideas but does not credit Ward conceptualizing the original theoretical underpinnings.
And, just for fun, here's a right wing video discussing the New Deal as a failure and how Obama's New Deal is "equally doomed". Part of Ward's "fall from grace" stems from the views of some that the New Deal was a failure and that it proved social engineering for the betterment of mankind does not work in the same way as he envisioned it would, so I thought this video represented that view.
