Of all my writings "Passion" (Free Press, 1984) is the one that lies closest to my heart and that most fully reveals the inner core of my ideas. In it I develop a view and an ideal of personality. This view and this ideal form a counterpart to the conception of society presented in my Politics books. The ideas about the self are neither more nor less fundamental than the ideas about politics. Despite the difference in genre, style, and length, the two sets of ideas represent two sides of the same doctrine.

The introduction and the main body of the work differ in character. The main body presents a continuous, sustained argument about personality, uninterrupted by any attempt to relate this argument to different intellectual traditions. The introduction offers an account both of the nature of the claims advanced in the book and of the relation of these claims to the most influential families of beliefs about how we should live. Some readers, repelled by what may seem an archaic and groundless philosophy of human nature, should begin with the introduction. Other readers, unattracted to discourses about discourses, should read the main text first, and return to the introduction later.

To order "Passion" go to the "my books" section of this website.

The full text of "Passion" is preceded here by a letter that summarizes in a few words the teaching of the book.