Lester Frank Ward

Lester Frank Ward was an American scientist and sociologist, trained originally as a botanist and paleontologist, who became the first president of the American Sociological Association and is regarded as one of the founders of American sociology. In Dynamic Sociology (1883) he argued for what he called telic, or purposeful, social evolution, contending that human intelligence and collective action, especially through education and government, could and should guide social development rather than leaving it to the unguided, competitive processes described by Herbert Spencer's social Darwinism. Ward's reform-oriented sociology, sometimes called reform Darwinism, positioned him as an early and influential critic of laissez-faire applications of evolutionary theory to society.