Economics in Relation to Sociology: Dualism and Vilfredo Pareto's Pluralistic Methodology

Many economists remember the masters of Lausanne for their important contributions to general equilibrium and welfare economics, but Leon Walras and Vilfredo Pareto both pursued much broader social research agendas. Walras did this within the general framework of economics, by complementing his ‘pure economics’ with ‘social economics’. Pareto, in contrast, first isolated economic theory from the influence of other social phenomena and distinguished between the result of theoretical economics and the concrete economic phenomenon. He then developed a general theory of social equilibrium which, inter alia, provided for a synthetic reconciliation of economics with sociology to understand the concrete phenomenon. This paper investigates the relationship between Pareto’s economics and his sociology. Its main contribution is the clarification of the pluralistic character of his methodology. This is done by considering how dualistic distinctions became an important device for Pareto, with particular reference to Sheila Dow’s notion of dualism and Andrew Mearman’s categories of dualism. Pareto’s pluralistic approach is shown as a neo-positive blend of ‘temporary’ Cartesian and non-Cartesian elements, which is not consistent with Dow’s own Babylonian approach to economics. The paper also reveals the economic phenomena that Pareto considered were dominated by sociological influences and, therefore, not amenable to Cartesian analysis.