Vilfredo Pareto's application of mathematics to economic analysis and sociology did much to advance the new fields' standing as legitimate sciences. Such developments as the Pareto optimum and his curves of indifference are analytical tools still used by some modern sociologists. He is still regarded today as the founder of mathematical economics--a title granted to him early in his own lifetime.

One of three children of an exiled Italian nobleman who supported his family through a successful career as a hydrological engineer, Pareto was born in Paris, France on July 15, 1848. He enjoyed an upper-middle-class upbringing, receiving a quality education in local private schools. Pareto completed a degree in engineering in 1869 at the Polytechnic Institute of Turin, finishing first in his class.

In 1871, he returned to a unified Italy with his parents and, like his father, found employment as a civil engineer with the government-run railroad. He was transferred...