人生歷程
Vilfredo Federico Damaso Pareto was born on July 15, 1848, in Paris. His father, Marchese Raffaele Pareto, was a Genoese noble exiled for his republican views, and his mother was French.
The Pareto family returned to Italy when political amnesty was granted. Young Vilfredo grew up in a cultured environment that valued education and intellectual achievement.
Pareto enrolled at the University of Turin to study mathematics. His aptitude for rigorous analytical thinking would later become the foundation of his approach to economics and sociology.
Pareto completed his doctoral thesis on the fundamental principles of equilibrium in solid bodies. This mathematical training deeply influenced his later work in economic equilibrium theory.
Pareto earned his engineering degree with a thesis on stress distribution. His combined training in mathematics and engineering gave him unique analytical tools for social science research.
Pareto started working as a railway engineer, gaining practical experience in management and economics. He gradually became interested in economic policy and began writing on free trade and liberalism.
Pareto married Alessandra Bakunin, of the family of the famous anarchist Mikhail Bakunin. The marriage would prove unhappy and eventually end in separation.
Pareto became director of the Rome Iron Works mines. His position gave him firsthand experience with industrial economics and labor relations, informing his later theoretical work.
Pareto began publishing economic articles advocating free trade and criticizing government intervention. His mathematical approach to economics attracted the attention of leading economists.
Pareto succeeded Léon Walras in the chair of political economy at the University of Lausanne. This appointment marked his transition from businessman to academic economist.
Pareto published his first major work, introducing the Pareto distribution and the concept of Pareto efficiency. The work established mathematical foundations for understanding income distribution across societies.
Alessandra Pareto left Vilfredo for a young cook and fled with much of his property. This personal crisis influenced his increasingly cynical view of human nature and social behavior.
Pareto inherited a fortune from an uncle and retreated to Villa Angora in Céligny. Free from financial concerns, he devoted himself entirely to scholarship and his famous collection of cats.
Pareto published his masterwork in economics, introducing indifference curves and the concept of optimality. The Pareto optimum became a cornerstone of welfare economics and remains influential today.
Pareto completed his massive sociological treatise, analyzing the role of elites in society and the circulation of elites. The work established him as a founding figure of modern sociology alongside Weber and Durkheim.
After years of living together, Pareto married Jeanne Régis when his first wife finally granted a divorce. Their relationship had lasted over twenty years before they could legally wed.
The new Fascist government nominated Pareto as a senator, though his failing health prevented him from taking the seat. His elite theory was sometimes misappropriated by fascist ideologues.
Vilfredo Pareto died on August 19, 1923, at Villa Angora. He left behind a lasting legacy in economics with Pareto efficiency and in sociology with his theory of elite circulation.
