Pareto’s Sociological Positivism

Abstract

Pareto’s action theory is basically a transformation of positivistepistemology into sociology. Two positivist standpoints are involved, which wereboth rightly criticized by Karl Popper. They concern the problems of thedemarcation between science and metaphysics and of the origin of truth and error.Furthermore, one can find a deep structural analogy between theory and action inepistemological respects. One has to distinguish between an internalist and anexternalist component of Pareto’s action theory. Considering the internalistcomponent, Pareto seems to be an underrated classic of action theory. Theexternalist component contains the two positivist standpoints.