Vilfredo Pareto is a very respected name in sociology. He was born on 15 July 1848 in Paris. Wilfredo Pareto wanted to become an engineer, so he studied mathematics and physics deeply.
Later he also worked as an engineer in the Italian Railways. And while working as an engineer, he started writing articles on various social issues, which supported the liberal policy. Due to this revolutionary writing of his, the Italian government had also warned him to write, but he continued his study work. Pareto also did teaching work in both economics and sociology. He had to resign in 1909 due to serious heart disease. He died a few years later in 1923, in Geneva.
Pareto believed that a phenomenon cannot be studied without its social aspect.
Pareto wanted to create a sociology that is as realistic and scientific as the natural sciences. They believed that none of the scholars of the past have completed their studies according to the scientific method, nor have they based the study of sociology on real facts, therefore their studies were either philosophical or only theoretical. For this reason, Pareto wants to bring it to a realistic and scientific level with the concept of his scientific sociology. For this, they want to have a sociology whose not only approach but methodology is also scientific. Pareto has called this method of his logical experimental science. We call this concept Pareto's concept of scientific sociology.
Scientific Sociology is totally based on three levels...
Supervision
factual experience
conclusions are drawn on the basis of inspection
Scientific sociology tightens the study of social events on the basis of experiences, after that after finding the facts which are common in different events, it returns the rules.
According to Pareto, if a subject is unable to use this method, it should be firmly excluded from sociology.
Only by this method, we can reach that level where truth can be attained because whatever is beyond real facts cannot be kept in sociology.
The rules of scientific sociology are completely based on real facts, due to which new facts will come to the fore, either the old rules will be changed or they will be improved.
In scientific sociology, no one element will be given primacy in the study of any social phenomenon because Pareto believes that no science gives priority to any one element, and on the basis of any one factor, social facts/phenomena cannot be determined. can| Pareto has given four main features of this logical experimental science.
The main features of scientific sociology...
Will study what is and what has been.
Will be free from preconceptions, and confirmed by actual evidence.
Social facts should be analyzed on the basis of the acceptability of functional relationships and quantitative facts.
Achieve greater accuracy and certainty.
Therefore, according to Pareto, any subject which is not acceptable by the logical experimental method has no place in scientific sociology. Whatever is more moral and final cannot become the material of science because the purpose of science is to keep searching for truth continuously.
Logical and Non-logical Action
In his study, Pareto studied the human actions found in society in these two parts, logical and irrational action.
Pareto believes that every social phenomenon has two sides.
The first as that event is actually there, and the second as it is imprinted in the mind of a particular person.
Pareto calls the first objective and the second objective. To make it more clear, it is said that there are two sides to social action and personal action. Goal and Means.
Defining logical and irrational action, Pareto says that such an action is called a logical action in which there is a logical adjustment between the goal and the means. The means should be in conformity with the goals and should also be socially approved and there should also be a logical basis for the action.
For example, setting a goal for a good job by a young man and working hard to achieve his goal.
Irrational action is one in which there is no rational basis between the goal and the means, such actions are not empirically proven or are not rational. For this reason, these activities are not considered scientific.
For example, setting a target for a good job by a young man and achieving the goal with the help of corruption or cheating.
This does not mean that Pareto rejects irrational actions, he believes that just as logical actions are important in life, in the same way, irrational actions are also important in life.
Pareto believes that most of the actions of man are irrational and do not arise from any logic but from a specific mental state.
The Concept of Residues
Pareto says that human behavior can have two sides.
relatively stable side
variable side
This first side is called Pareto specific driver and the second variable side is called erroneous logic.
According to Pareto, these are those stable elements of human behavior, which are the work of most psychologists to study and this should come in the field of study of psychologists.
Pareto believes that motivations play a major role in determining human behavior. Man cannot do any work without any inspiration.
Pareto's specific driver is a special type of motivation and this specific driver motivation is relatively more stable, which is why it also controls human behavior.
These specific drivers play a major role in driving human behavior. The specific driver is the expression of basic instincts and feelings.
Typical drivers can be understood on the basis of three characteristics...
Typical conductors are relatively stable.
The specific driver is not the basic instinct or emotion but its expression.
A typical conductor does not have logical elements and cannot be explained on a logical basis.
Categories of Residues
- the specific driver of insertion
- Typical drivers of group sustainability
- specific drivers of expression of emotion by external actions
- social driver
- Distinctive drivers of the organization of personality
- job specific driver
According to Pareto, these specific drivers play an important role in influencing human behavior.
Importance of Residues
- Specific drivers are the determinants of human behavior.
- Specific drivers are helpful in maintaining balance in the social system.
- Specific drivers influence our behavior.
- Specific drivers are emotionally attached to humans.
- All the specific conductors complement each other.
- Specific drivers make a man a social animal and motivate him.
The Concept of Derivations
Whenever a person has to present many techniques or explanations according to his nature, circumstances, and ideals to prove the justification of his actions, Pareto has called these erroneous arguments.
Illusive reasoning is that broad field of activities by which man tries to convince and convince his colleagues with himself in relation to the rationality or justification of behavior.
People accept these erroneous arguments more easily than scientific theories.
The Classifications of Derivations
- Announcements
- Authority
- Accord with Sentiments
- Verbal Proofs
Pareto does not believe at all that every erroneous argument is absolutely harmful to society, it is true that all erroneous arguments are not true and every scientist should always try to avoid the explanations and effects of their phenomena.
Apart from this, they also believe that they are also influenced in their study that there are many false arguments that prove useful in maintaining unity in a social system, while how many truths are such which are fatal for the organization of a social system. That is, it is not necessary that every truth is useful or that every superstition is harmful.
The Concept of The Circulation of Elite.
The concept of rotation of the elite is an important concept of Pareto's theory.
In every society there is a hierarchy of high and low on some basis, every society is divided into some two parts, which in general we can see mainly on two basis.
- High class
- Lower class
The upper class and lower class are often found in every society and it is believed that the people of the upper class have power in their hands, out of which only skilled and intelligent smart people rule the society. From this point of view, the upper class is the dominant class. Such classes are called Pareto elites.
There is a constant movement between the ruling elite and the non-ruling elite. That is, the elites keep changing from one society to another and from one time to another. Pareto has called this process the rotation of the elite. This process goes on continuously, no one is static in this process.
Pareto has given three main reasons for this.
No square is completely closed.
The people of the elite class have power that they misuse many times which makes them corrupt, due to which their moral decline starts.
Some people of the lower class who are intelligent, they are constantly trying to move up.
According to Pareto, the elite does not remain stable for a long time, as a result, their number decreases and a new elite emerges.
In short, we can say that the elites rule the society but they also dig their own graves.
That's why Pareto also says that.
"History is the graveyard of oligarchs" and "History is a Graveyard of Aristocracies"
The caste system in Indian society is the best example of this.
Cyclical Theory of Change.
According to Pareto, social change is a natural and regular process and in fact, changes take place in society in a cycle that goes on like a cycle from bottom to top and top to bottom, this is called the theory of cyclic change.
There are three main components of the social change cycle.
Political (lion and fox)
In the political field, cyclical change occurs when the power of governance comes into the hands of those people who are powerful but with time they become corrupt.
Pareto explains this with the example of a lion and a fox, that people who are in power are lions, like other foxes, they are circling around them. Over time, these lions, corrupted by their antics, diplomacy, and their path, turn themselves into foxes. And start working like them, but in the lower class those foxes who are trying to take power in their hands, they get such an opportunity.
Therefore, when the lion starts acting like a fox, then the fox reaches its place like a lion and becomes dominant.
This change continues like this continuously.
Economic (Speculators and Fixed Income Classes)
Explaining the changes in the economic organization and system in the economic field, Pareto says that there are two types of classes in the economic field also. Given this example, he has divided the first class as a speculator class and the second class as fixed income class.
The income of the speculator class is uncertain, people of this class earn on the strength of their intelligence. In this class, there are people like patrons, leaders, and businessmen.
On the contrary, those people whose income is fixed, they come in the second category. The income of this class of people is not based on guesswork like speculators but on hard work.
The people of the first class fall prey to cunning and corruption by their economic interests or other types of power, due to which their downfall starts and the second class starts taking their place.
In this way, a cycle of economic and social change goes on continuously between these classes.
Idealistic
Clarifying social change in the normative sphere, Pareto says that the cycle of distrust and belief continues in the normative sphere.
Many times it happens when the society is dominated by the believers but these people are also very conservative which results in their downfall, and vice versa, they are replaced by the class.
In this way, the process of social change goes on continuously. If this process of social change will stop then development will stop in the society.
Some of the great books of Vilfredo Pareto...
- The Mind and Society (4 Vol) 1935
- Sociological Writings 1966
- The Other Pareto 1980
