Vilfredo Pareto

History

B orn July 15, 1848 in Paris, France. and deceased Aug. 20, 1923, Vilfredo Pareto was an economist and theorist of scientific sociology. Vilfredo Pareto graduated from the University of Turin in Italy and became professor of political economy at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland.

In books such as Mind and Society (1916; Eng. trans., 1935) and Rise and Fall of the Elites, Alfredo Pareto states that individual acts, because they are influenced by desires and illusions, are not guided by logic. But Pareto also writes that mass action becomes more logical the greater the number involved, because desires and illusions cancel out; rationality then becomes the motivating force. Society, like physics, is a system of forces in equilibrium, according to Alfredo Pareto. Mathematics can therefore be applied to explain why the equilibrium holds, making a genuine science of society possible. Wilfredo Pareto was particularly interested in applying this science to the study of elites.

Vilfredo Pareto's theory did not recognize that irrational behavior can also occur on a mass scale, and his theory cannot, therefore, account for the behavior of crowds. Vilfredo Pareto has nevertheless influenced sociology to the present day -- for example, in the contemporary emphasis on statistical analyses.

Vilfredo Pareto's works have resulted in the eponymous and pervasive modern management tools such as Pareto Chart (Grafica de Pareto), Pareto Distribution, Pareto Principle (Principio de Pareto), Pareto Optimum, Pareto's Law (Ley de Pareto), Pareto Efficiency, and Pareto Optimality.

Vilfredo Pareto Spelling and Pronunciation

Vilfredo Pareto's family name "Pareto" is pronounced puh-RAY-toe, or pah-RAY-toe.  And while his given name may be occasionally misspelled or misquoted as Wilfrido Paredo, Wilfredo Pareto, Vilfredo Pereto, Vilfred Paretto, and even Alfredo Paredo, it is actually spelled Vilfredo Pareto.  These specific misspellings are included in this document to allow people who may have heard about this great man conversationally, and have difficulty finding details of his works. 

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