Note 1130 — Chapter I · : THE HEDONISTS

Professor Edgeworth employs a similar comparison, speaking of the economic man as a charioteer and of social science as consisting of a chariot and some such charioteer (Mathematical Psychics, p. 15). “‘Mécanique Sociale’ may one day take her place along with ‘Mécanique Céleste,’ throned each upon the double-sided height of one maximum principle, the supreme pinnacle of moral as of physical science.” (Ibid., p. 12.)

Pareto regards political economy as a study of the balance between desires and the obstacles which stand in the way of their satisfaction.