ABSTRACT
Given the absence of previous literature on Pareto’s treatment of rhetoric, at least as far as the Anglophone world is concerned,1 it is the aim of this chapter to offer one. By recovering Pareto’s treatment of rhetoric in the mare magnum of words and thoughts contained in his 1916 Trattato di Sociologia generale, I hope to contribute something novel and interesting to contemporary Pareto studies. Moreover, my endeavour should appeal to scholars in rhetoric and communication studies at large, for it contains a Paretian elucidation of rhetoric and of the psychosocial forces allowing for persuasive communication.2
