A Multifaceted Liberalism and a Positive Methodology

Fiorenzo Mornati
Additional contact information
Fiorenzo Mornati: University of Turin

Chapter 5 in Vilfredo Pareto: An Intellectual Biography Volume I, 2018, pp 127-159 from Palgrave Macmillan

Abstract: Abstract This chapter will deal with Pareto’s wide-ranging intellectual interests during the Tuscan period, characterised by his early adoption of a liberal ideological outlook. The first section will examine the political liberalism of the young Pareto, with its clear orientation towards the ideas of John Stuart Mill, including his brief but intense alliance with political activism in favour of legislation on proportional representation, of freedom of religion (Sect. 5.2) and of the emancipation of women (Sect. 5.3). This is followed in Sect. 5.4 by an initial overview of Pareto’s early economic liberalism, which he recognised as ideological in character notwithstanding the clear evidence of the disastrous consequences of state intervention in the economy revealed by economic history. Lastly, in Sects. 5.5, 5.6, and 5.7 we highlight his ongoing interest in methodological questions which can be traced back to his university years, where his wholesale endorsement of John Stuart Mill’s positivistic approach was complemented by ideas borrowed from the Franco-Belgian economist and advocate of free trade Gustave de Molinari, with whom Pareto maintained close ties, also of friendship, between the late 1880s and the mid-1890s.

Date: 2018
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:pshchp:978-3-319-92549-3_5

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.palgrave.com/9783319925493

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-92549-3_5

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Palgrave Studies in the History of Economic Thought from Palgrave Macmillan
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().