The Theory of Mind as Pure Act

More than twenty years ago I dedicated to you a book which bore witness to a concordia discors, a friendship formed by discussions and intellectual collaboration. I have seen with joy a younger generation look up to our friendship as an example to follow. In all these years our collaboration has become ever more inward, our friendship ever more living. But my old book is no longer alive in my soul, and this is why I feel the need to inscribe your much-loved name in this. G. THE AUTHOR'S PREFACE ... so I print this small volume (as I hope to print others in years to come) in order not to part company with my students when their examination is over, and in order that I may be ready, if my work be not lost, to repeat in these pages mv reply, or my encouragement to make them seek their own reply, when they feel the need arise — and that I hope will not be seldom — to meet the serious problems, so old yet ever new, which I have discussed in the class-room. The first edition of this book had its origin in^a course of lectures given at the University of Pisa, in the Academic year 1915-16. It was exhausted in a few months. The continued demand, seeming to prove that the interest in the work is not diminishing, has induced me to reprint the book as it first appeared, without waiting for the time and leisure necessary for the complete revision I wished to make. I should like to have given another form to the whole treatment and more particularly to expound several subjects hardly noticed. I 'have, however, devoted as much care to the revision as the shortness of the time at my disposal made possible.…