Convergence of opposites? Reflections on Vilfredo Pareto and Werner Sombart

Vilfredo Pareto and Werner Sombart lived at the same time: Pareto was born in 1848, and Sombart only 15 years later, in 1863. Much of their lives were spent in the same Europe, where, between Italy, France and Germany, they breathed the same cultural milieu and cultivated the same sciences: economics and sociology. More or less consciously, they dedicated themselves to the same ambition: re-founding sociology. Yet Vilfredo Pareto and Werner Sombart “ignored each other” (Rizzo 1974, 28) and remained essentially unknown to each other. Not completely, of course. And yet, all references from one to the other were extremely limited and sporadic.