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PARTISAN REVIEW
realities." And Ortega quotes Montesquieu: "Europe is only a nation
composed of several nations."
Ortega, Pareto, and Croce
I must now compare the ideas of Ortega to the theories of
the elite that the sociologists of our century have developed . The
philosopher from Madrid naturally uses a different vocabulary than
the economic-sociologist from Lausanne, Pareto. Pareto also con–
trasts the elites and the masses, but he does not make a value judg–
ment to define the rapport between the two. The elite is composed of
those who have succeeded in their activities - the prostitutes as well
as the recipients of the Nobel Prize. In fact, Pareto seriously con–
siders only the leading political and economic class . He does not ac–
cord it any moral superiority related to its size, nor an explicit in–
tellectual superiority, any more than Ortega considers the elite to be
only those who commit themselves , who control their lives instead of
submitting. Pareto would not have denied that the elite, in a descrip–
tive sense, sociologically, counted mass men in their ranks , but ,
deciding to respect the rules of the
"logico-experimentale,"
he adhered to
objective standards of social distinctions.
Most sociologists today, in differentiating between the masses
and the el ite , follow Pareto . Some speak of "strategic minorities,"
minorities who find themselves in key positions in the social realm,
and as a result, exercise an influence disproportionate to their num–
ber. Others question even the existence of the elite. They do not
deny that some are privileged, in prestige, in fortune, and in power.
They deny, however, that these privileged constitute a
group ,
aware
of its unity, capable of acting in concert, as if obeying
one
wish, or
having
one
objective. In any case, there is a wide gap between
Ortega's style and that of contemporary sociology.
Croce always was hostile to sociology, even though in his soci–
ology he participated in Marxist debates. I am unfamiliar with the
texts in which Ortega expresses his feelings about sociology. He
must have been suspicious of the quantification of social phenom–
ena , but it seems to me that historical reason, in the manner in
which Ortega conceives it, does not condemn nor necessarily neglect
the teachings of empirical sociology which was created in Europe ,
expanded to the United States, and returned to Europe after World
War II.
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