In this book, the author seeks to clarify two main points. The first point is the danger to which all forms of human activity are exposed, especially with regard to the way democracy works, as a result of the "intellectualists" assumption that every human action is the result of an intellectual process, through which a person first thinks about a goal. He desires it. Then he calculates the means by which he can achieve it.
The second point is the need to replace that assumption with a conscious, organized intellectual effort. All the progress that human civilization has achieved after the early stages has been made possible by the invention of methods of thinking that make it possible for us to explain and predict the workings of nature more successfully than we could have had we followed the path of "least resistance" in using our minds.