Pareto and the Missing Concept of Prudence

Alasdair Marshall
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Alasdair Marshall: University of Southampton - Southampton Business School

Il Pensiero Economico Italiano, 2016, vol. 24, issue 2, 61-77

Abstract: The article proposes that Pareto’s Treatise on General Sociology deserves to be read with an ethical concern to establish how it can help its readers become more prudent. This concern is accorded urgency in view of the fact that the book offers ideas which chime with those held by growing numbers of online extremist political activists loosely linked to what is increasingly called the ‘alt right’. The central argument is that the full ‘mirror for princes’ guidance value of the text can be realised when readers disregard its Machiavellian-Paretian psychological realism which over-emphasises the influences of animal spirits on thought and behaviour, and instead turn to a much broader and ethically richer vision of human behaviour based on prudence

Keywords: Pareto; Machiavelli; ‘mirror for princes’; prudence; phronesis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: B31 Z10 Z13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pei:journl:v:24:y:2016:2:5:p:61-77

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