I believe that those who are interested in my current work will find in these writings the issues that have shaped my later course under their pressing influence.

First of all, of course, the political problem and the awareness of the need for a radical social transformation, the faith in the creativity of the great masses of people, and the central character of the democratic agenda.

But equally the philosophical quest: how can we think about society and history, and, starting from that: what can we think about our relationships, as human beings, with the 'objects' that surround us (and constitute us), and with the 'ideas' that shape these relationships.

This quest is already articulated in some of its insurmountable elements, for me, in these texts from 1944; and reading them again, prompted by this publication, I often found myself forced to pause and reflect.

Perhaps it is not presumptuous to hope that the same may happen with the younger reader.

[Excerpt from the text on the back cover of the edition]