Stefano Ricciuti

Both Pareto and Weber wrote their fundamental works between 1890 and 1920. They dealt with the relationship between Sociology and Economics and other Human Sciences, especially Psychology and History, but their results were quite different. Indeed, the Italian engineer developed step by step a method which links logic and experience in order to achieve an objective and universal knowledge by a (neo-)positivistic standpoint, whereas the German jurist followed the Neo-Kantian philosophy of values and stressed the importance of the personal purpose. However, although Pareto supported a kind of abstractive procedure whose range is much bigger than Weber’s Idealty-pus, they ultimately agreed on the so-called “methodological individualism”, because of their commitment to marginalist Economics.