Vitalism on the Tracks of Life

First published in 1907, Vitalism: On the Tracks of Life is a tour de force and one of the clearest expositions of vitalist thought ever written. Grounded in the work of Nietzsche, Stendhal and the author's own studies in anthropology, Séra brilliantly lays out his "principal thesis-the identification of aristocracy, physical superiority, and repugnance to work." With a frankness that is remarkable for its time, he spells out the role of the sexual impulse in society, the relation of work and leisure to higher culture, the psychological and physiological type of the higher man and the genius, the interplay of North and South in the formation of European civilization, and many other topics. This new edition includes a new Introduction on the history of vitalist thought in biology and philosophy and the place of Gioacchino Leo Séra. "A detached individualism, courage in every form, the spirit of initiative and enterprise, the love of adventure, of war, and of the chase, of the unknown and of the unexpected, are the distinguishing traits which denote a healthy and vigorous nature. Leisure is their natural state, as it was also the state of primitive humanity, of which, indeed, they possess many of the characteristics. These are the men who are called 'rulers, ' 'masters, ' 'governors.'" Gioacchino Leo Séra was a writer and anthropologist who taught at Pavia, Milan and Naples. Vitalism: On the Tracks of Life was his first book.