The Concept "Social Forces" in American Sociology. Section II. Ward's Classification of Social Forces and Those of His More Direct Imitators

Abstract

"Social forces" as a phase of theory of social causation. For Ward as for other sociologists, the social-forces concept was a part of a broader theory of social causation; it is like a cross-section of social process taken at a certain level; differences in the level taken by different writers account, in part, for differences in their lists of social forces. Social purposes. Ward emphasized strongly the teleological character of human social behavior, and his classification of social forces is really a classification of social purposes. His classification did not change greatly in his successive publications. Classifications of social forces resembling that of Ward in the writings of other American sociologists. Giddings' sociology has no important place for the social-forces concept, but in his early writings there is some recognition of the idea. Ross has experimented with a number of classifications, some resembling Ward's but the latest resembling McDougall's and Small's. Ellwood approaches more and more to Ward's type of classification in his successive books. Bushee has recently published a classification very much like Ward's in General Sociology. Small commented favorably on Ward's handling of the social-forces concept.