A critical examination of social inequality and conflict from Vilfredo Pareto

Abstract

This paper focused on a review of social inequality and conflict as espoused by Vilfredo Pareto. The methodological design provided insight into the ideological basis of Pareto’s social theorizing, especially his disillusionment with inability of the business and political tink-tanks of his generation to adopt the methods of physical sciences. He argued that most of human actions are non-logical, derived from certain residues (sentiments and biases), but logicalized or justified (derivatives) by functionalists to maintain social order and social cohesion. The centrality of the logico-experimental methods in his thesis is deficient in its explanatory potentials about the residues, which can neither be observed nor measured. The Paretian thesis has methodological problem that makes replication of studies diffcult. Nevertheless, the thesis was a great leap forward into the intricacies of social inequality, especially the manifestation of sentiments (residues) that has till date not been well explored.

Keywords: Pareto, inequality, conflict, residues, derivatives, action.