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This article examines uses made by Pareto of his pure economic theory in the construction of his sociology. After a discussion of the methodological differences (quantitative discipline vs qualitative discipline) and the conceptual continuity between pure economics and sociology, the article examines the notion of utility (ophelimity), the parallels between general economic equilibrium and social equilibrium in the Traité to finally tackle the difficult reconciliation within the framework of the nascent welfare economy between a Pareto optimum and the maximum social utility. This contribution should help remind economists that beyond the “first approximation” of a rational choice theory based on agents for whom society is only “functional,” Pareto in fact offers an introduction to a theory of action within a society in which individuals demonstrate a substantial degree of sociability.