The Mind and Society (1916) is the English title of the seminal Italian sociological work Trattato di Sociologia Generale by sociologist and economist Vilfredo Pareto (1848-1923).
In this book Pareto presents the first sociological cycle theory, centered around the concept of an elite social class.
Pareto divided the elite class into two groups: the conservative defenders of the status quo (violent 'lions'), and the radical promoters of change (cunning 'foxes'). In his view of society, the power constantly passes from 'foxes' to 'lions' and vice versa.
The Mind and Society has been named one of the most influential books ever written by Martin Seymour-Smith. The English edition was published in 1935.
Famous quotes containing the words mind and/or society:
“Poetry is essentially the antithesis of Metaphysics: Metaphysics purge the mind of the senses and cultivate the disembodiment of the spiritual; Poetry is all passionate and feeling and animates the inanimate; Metaphysics are most perfect when concerned with universals; Poetry, when most concerned with particulars.”
—Samuel Beckett (1906–1989)
“Justice must always question itself, just as society can exist only by means of the work it does on itself and on its institutions.”
—Michel Foucault (1926–1984)