Emergence of a dualistic methodology - logical versus non-logical action
Pareto’s new dualistic approach was a direct result of the distinction between logical and non-logical action that he set out in “Un’applicazione di teorie sociologiche” (1900a [1980]).
The starting point for this study was the proposition that there are three forms of phenomena, each of which need to be investigated: (1) the objective form (the relationship between real objects); (2) the subjective form (the relationship between psychological states); and (3) how “real phenomenon act to alter the subjective phenomenon and vice-versa” (Pareto 1900a [1980]: 181). He attempted to consider the rise and fall of aristocracies in term of these three forms. As societies rose and then fell (the objective) Pareto noted “sentiment”, such as feelings of support for, or opposition to, socialism, nationalism, humanism, imperialism, and so on (the subjective), grew more intense in opposition to the prevailing aristocracy and noted that the path of the rise and fall of elites was interdependent with sentiment for or against the government (the subjective acting to alter the objective and the objective acting to alter the subjective). This theme was greatly expanded by Pareto in his Les systemes socialistes (1901-02), which introduced the term “elites” in place of “aristocracies”.At the theoretical level, the fundamental point is that Pareto regarded Sociology as the study of social phenomena where the subjective view is interdependent with objective phenomena; and the associated action was characterized by Pareto as “non-logical”, not because it was illogical, but because it could not be analysed on the presumption of a logical nexus between means and ends. The study of logical action, however, is reserved for situations in which there is a stable and unique relationship between the objective (or real) phenomena and subjective intent. This permits “ends” to be taken as given, with the means to ends associated with choices being directly observed. Pure economic theory was, to Pareto, a study of logical action, which he also associated with the observed consistency of repeat choices when circumstances are unchanged.