Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Author-Name: Alasdair Marshall 
Author-Email:
Author-Workplace-Name: University of Southampton - Southampton Business School
Title: Pareto and the Missing Concept of Prudence 
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
Classification-JEL: B31, Z10, Z13 
Keywords: Pareto; Machiavelli; ‘mirror for princes’; prudence; phronesis 
Journal: Il Pensiero Economico Italiano
Pages: 61-77
Volume: 24
Issue: 2
Year: 2016
File-URL: http://www.libraweb.net/articoli.php?chiave=201606302&rivista=63
Handle: RePEc:pei:journl:v:24:y:2016:2:5:p:61-77