ABSTRACT
Vilfredo Pareto thinks against both barbarians and civilized people, against both despots and naïve democrats, against both philosophers who claim to discover the ultimate truth of things and scientists who imagine that only science has any importance. Because of the plurality of his enemies, the intrinsic meaning of his work cannot but remain uncertain. Moreover, Pareto explicitly refuses to decide what goal the individual or society should set itself. According to him, the truth about society is something of a factor in social breakdown. If this contradiction is authentic, if the true is not the useful, if the useful consists of fictions or illusions, then everyone is free to choose truth in terms of personal preference, or Utility in terms of the society to which he belongs. Finally, Pareto implies a kind of inherent contradiction between scientific truth and social utility.
