The following work is not at all the result of some "internal impulse". On the contrary. When, suddenly, three years ago, Mr. Dühring, as a mystic but also a reformer of socialism, became a challenge in his time, my friends in Germany repeatedly pressured me with the desire for me to provide a critical perspective on this new socialist theory in the central organ of the Social Democratic Party, the newspaper Volksstaat (People's State).

They considered it absolutely necessary to avoid giving the still very new and only recently united party another chance for a sectarian split and confusion. They were better positioned than I to assess the conditions in Germany. Therefore, I was obliged to believe them.

(...) [Excerpt from the text of the preface]