Pareto on Idealisation and the Method of Analysis-Synthesis

Philosophers of science and philosophers of economics have recently 'rediscovered' the problem of idealisation. In this paper a taxonomy of different kinds of idealising procedures is applied to Pareto's views on the status of economics among the social sciences. THe paper aims to show that the evolution of Pareto's carrer as a social scientist can be seen in a new perspective, as a long and in the end unresolved struggle with the problem of analysis-synthesis.