To Marina; To Claire, Thomas and Antoine

The story of this book begins with a hoax.

One sign is that the challenge comes nowadays not only from the rearguard, but also from people who are neither die-hard positivists nor old-fashioned Marxists, and who understand the problems encountered by science, rationality and traditional leftist politics—but who believe that criticism of the past should enlighten the future, not lead to contemplation of the ashes.