Why am I passionate about this?

I was trained as a philosopher and have been a professor of philosophy for more than three decades. Beginning with Plato, I have been persuaded that reason is powerful. I am also a social theorist and have published scholarly books on Max Weber, Ferdinand Tönnies, and Raymond Aron. Yet Pareto’s writings have convinced me that people are most often motivated by interests and passions and then use reasons to justify their behavior. Plato showed people as they ought to be; Pareto showed them as they are. Philosophy is important, but so is Pareto’s social psychology.


I wrote

Vilfredo Pareto's Contributions to Modern Social Theory: A Centennial Appraisal

By Christopher Adair-Toteff (editor),

Book cover of Vilfredo Pareto's Contributions to Modern Social Theory: A Centennial Appraisal

What is my book about?

This is a collection of twelve essays written by distinguished scholars with the intention of clarifying some of Pareto’s main…

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The books I picked & why

Book cover of Vilfredo Pareto: Sociological Writings

Christopher Adair-Toteff Why did I love this book?

This is the best book to start your journey in understanding Vilfredo Pareto’s sociological writings

I recommend this book because it not only contains some of Pareto’s most important writings in a remarkably readable translation but also because S.E Finer provides an outstanding and lengthy introduction to many crucial aspects of Pareto’s sociology.

Finer was one of the most talented and objective scholars to write on Pareto’s thinking.

By S. E. Finer (editor), Vilfredo Pareto, Derick Mirfin (translator)

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Vilfredo Pareto as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Book by Pareto, Vilfredo


Book cover of The Other Pareto

Christopher Adair-Toteff Why did I love this book?

The Other Pareto contains one of the best accounts of Pareto’s thinking. He provides a fuller context regarding Pareto's place in social thinking. 

Bucolo began with Pareto’s early writings from 1872 and proceeds to provide an explanation of Pareto’s ideas until Pareto’s death in 1923. Bucolo provided massive quotations from Pareto’s writings to support and document his interpretation.

By Placido Bucolo (editor),

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Other Pareto as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

308p hardback with green laminated jacket, as new, dense ink notes to front endpapers, pages clean with bibliography and index, very good


Book cover of Pareto on Policy

Christopher Adair-Toteff Why did I love this book?

In Pareto on Policy, Warren Samuels attempted to provide a detailed commentary on Pareto’s Treatise on General Sociology or in the English language translation Mind and Society.

Samuel’s chapters all contain the term “policy” but the chapters themselves are focused on knowledge, power, freedom, control, and change. Samuel’s Pareto on Policy is the best commentary on Pareto’s magnum opus that I know.

By Warren Samuels,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Pareto on Policy as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Warren Samuels interprets Vilfredo Pareto's Treatise on General Sociology in terms of a general equilibrium model of policy. Three themes and one conviction run throughout the study. The first is a model of policy making involving three sets of variables: power, knowledge, and psychology. The second is a general equilibrium approach to the study of these variables emphasizing their fundamental interdependence. The third is the importance of Pareto's work.

Pareto is one of the few individuals whose work has had enormous influence in at least three social sciences in the twentieth century: economics, sociology, and political science. Despite Pareto's attempt…


Book cover of Pareto's General Sociology

Christopher Adair-Toteff Why did I love this book?

Lawrence J Henderson was one of the first Americans to take Pareto’s writings seriously. He was a professor at Harvard during the 1930s, and this 1935 book was an outgrowth of his interest in understanding Pareto’s thought.

The subtitle "A Physiologist’s Interpretation" indicates that his approach to Pareto’s work differed from most because he was a natural scientist rather than a social scientist. As a physiologist, H. was able to recognize Pareto's engineering background with the recognition of universally valid laws, yet he was also able to see how Pareto was influenced as an economist where there are high degrees of regularity.

That makes him one of the best authorities on Pareto's "General sociology". Henderson could see generalities that most social scientists could neither understand nor appreciate. 

Book cover of Vilfredo Pareto: Beyond Disciplinary Boundaries

Christopher Adair-Toteff Why did I love this book?

Joseph Femia has chosen 21 outstanding essays about Vilfredo Pareto, which are divided into three sections: Methodology, Social Theory, and Politics and Political Theory.

All 21 are important historical investigations of Pareto’s thinking. The best are two by Norberto Bobbio and those by James Lane and by A.J. Baker. Most importantly, Femia’s collection also contains S.E. Finer’s “Pareto and Pluto-democracy.”

As a philosopher who crosses several disciplines (sociology, economics, and theology), I really appreciated the way in which Pareto was shown in this book to transcend the boundaries between economics and sociology. There was no one except for Max Weber, who could move among disciplines as easily as Vilfredo Pareto. 

By Joseph V. Femia (editor), Alasdair J. Marshall (editor),

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Vilfredo Pareto as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

This collection examines the work of the Italian economist and social theorist Vilfredo Pareto, highlighting the extraordinary scope of his thought, which covers a vast range of academic disciplines. The volume underlines the enduring and contemporary relevance of Pareto's ideas on a bewildering variety of topics; while illuminating his attempt to unite different disciplines, such as history and sociology, in his quest for a 'holistic' understanding of society. Bringing together the world's leading experts on Pareto, this collection will be of interest to scholars working in the fields of sociology and social psychology, monetary theory and risk analysis, philosophy and…


Explore my book 😀

Vilfredo Pareto's Contributions to Modern Social Theory: A Centennial Appraisal

By Christopher Adair-Toteff (editor),

Book cover of Vilfredo Pareto's Contributions to Modern Social Theory: A Centennial Appraisal

What is my book about?

This is a collection of twelve essays written by distinguished scholars with the intention of clarifying some of Pareto’s main ideas for use in modern social theory. Some of the essays are comparisons, some are historical, and some explain Pareto’s approach to political issues. But all of them are clearly written explorations of Pareto’s thought.

Book cover of Vilfredo Pareto: Sociological Writings
Book cover of The Other Pareto
Book cover of Pareto on Policy

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