Pareto's General Sociology

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Pareto’s Treatise on General Sociology is so long and so difficult to understand that it has been too much neglected. Now that an English translation has just appeared, scholars will welcome Lawrence Henderson’s brief but clear essay, which makes it possible to arrive quickly at some comprehension of the special problems to which the Treatise is addressed and some understanding of the development which Pareto gives these problems. The main work of the Treatise is the development of a systematic method of approaching sociological inquiry. Pareto points out that a social group consists of a heterogeneity of individuals, that these individuals collaborate in social fashion because of links which are non-logical in character. The study of this non-logic is the first and most important part of sociology. Only when this study has been adequately accounted for, can one proceed to consideration of the part played in human affairs by logical reasoning and, for example, economic interest.