Editing Vilfredo Pareto (section)

== Sociology ==
Pareto's later years were spent in collecting the material for his best-known work, ''Trattato di sociologia generale'' (1916) (''The Mind and Society'', published in 1935). His final work was ''Compendio di sociologia generale'' (1920). In his ''Trattato di Sociologia Generale'' (1916, rev. French trans. 1917), published in English by [[Harcourt, Brace]], in a four-volume edition edited by [[Arthur Livingston]] under the title ''[[The Mind and Society]]'' (1935), Pareto developed the notion of the [[circulation of elites]], the first [[social cycle theory]] in sociology. He is famous for saying "history is a graveyard of aristocracies".<ref>Rossides, Daniel W. (1998) ''Social Theory: Its Origins, History, and Contemporary Relevance''. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 203. {{ISBN|1882289501}}.</ref>

Pareto might have turned to sociology for an understanding of why his mathematical economic theories did not always predict actions of individuals in practice, in the belief that unforeseen or uncontrollable social factors intervened. His sociology holds that much social action is nonlogical and that much personal action is designed to give spurious logicality to non-rational actions. We are driven, he taught, by certain "residues" and by "derivations" from these residues. The more important of these have to do with conservatism and risk-taking, and human history is the story of the alternate dominance of these sentiments in the ruling elite, which comes into power strong in conservatism but gradually changes over to the philosophy of the "foxes" or speculators. A catastrophe results, with a return to conservatism; the "lion" mentality follows. This cycle might be broken by the use of force, says Pareto, but the elite becomes weak and humanitarian and shrinks from violence.<ref>Aron, Raymond. (1967) ''Main Currents in Sociological Thought: Durkheim, Pareto, Weber – Vol. 2''  [https://www.questia.com/read/100306508 online edition] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120504091005/http://www.questia.com/read/100306508 |date=4 May 2012 }}; [https://www.amazon.com/Main-Currents-Sociological-Thought-Durkheim/dp/0765804360/  excerpt and text search]</ref>

Among those who introduced Pareto's sociology to the United States were [[George C. Homans]] and [[Lawrence Joseph Henderson]] at Harvard, and Paretian ideas gained considerable influence, especially on Harvard sociologist [[Talcott Parsons]], who developed a systems approach to society and economics that argues the ''status quo'' is usually functional.<ref>Homans, George C., and Charles P. Curtis Jr. (1934) [https://www.questia.com/read/80982212 ''An Introduction to Pareto: His Sociology''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120504091017/http://www.questia.com/read/80982212 |date=4 May 2012 }}. Alfred A. Knopf. New York.</ref> The American historian [[Bernard DeVoto]] played an important role in introducing Pareto's ideas to these Cambridge intellectuals and other Americans in the 1930s. [[Wallace Stegner]], in his biography of DeVoto, recounts these developments and says this about the often misunderstood distinction between "residues" and "derivations". He wrote: "Basic to Pareto's method is the analysis of society through its non-rational 'residues,' which are persistent and unquestioned social habits, beliefs, and assumptions, and its 'derivations,' which are the explanations, justifications, and rationalizations we make of them. One of the commonest errors of social thinkers is to assume rationality and logic in social attitudes and structures; another is to confuse residues and derivations."<ref>Wallace Stegner, ''The Uneasy Chair: A Biography of Bernard DeVoto'' (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1974), p. 141.</ref>