I should like to have completed this process by having this project bound so that it read from right to left instead of the traditional manner in which we have learnt and been taught to read. In partaking of such an activity, it would have been my purpose and intention to share with you my sense of physical discomfort that has situated itself beside me at various stages from the on-set of my research. Because I believe in this process, I have decided to follow a traditional approach, and as you can see it reads as it should from left to right. In the introductory phase of this study, I assert quite unequivocally that this is not a thesis. Instead I promote this as a prolegomena; an interlocutory prolusion. But don't be deceived! This is very much a thesis. It has been researched according to guidelines, formatted according to specifications and ethically undertaken. I want you to believe that it is a thesis. Partially because I have pursued this research in a very serious manner and also because no matter how much we try to avoid becoming enmeshed in a system, ultimately we find that we are. Three years ago I embarked on a quest. At this time, I proposed that I would undertake a study on the Historical Understandings of passion throughout the Western World. This idea came to a sudden and dramatic halt, through the encountering of what I should like to refer to as a series of problems. In order to do justice to my subject, I decided to write about these obstacles, a decision that I hoped would lead me back to my original statement of intent, following their reconciliation. It is Michel Foucault, that I credit with the title for this thesis. After reading his book entitled "This Is Not A Pipe" (1982) I felt a certain sense of inspiration and ethical obligation that I considered worth taking the risk for. Due to no longer writing a thesis on passion, I decided that this could not be called a thesis. It could only be an introduction to my thesis that would speak about why it had become impossible for me to pursue my thesis at this stage. The other reason that this carries the title of this is not a thesis, surrounds my favouring the post-modern over any other position that I have inquired about. This prolusion involves a discussion surrounding many of the problematics associated with my research processes. These include extensively looking at existing methodologies available when undertaking research today. Adjunct to the illumination of these problems, I look at literary disruptions; my penchant for knowledge and my naive aspirations which all contributed to thwarting my journey into completing an adequate study on passion. Included in this prolegomena, are two diagrammatic representations of passion. The first seeks to re-inscribe through re-presenting passion away from its traditional juxtaposition with love or sexual gratification. It re-presents passion as a polyvalent movement that is vastly more complicated than that to which we have come to believe in through out the centuries. Accompanying this depiction, are the traditional notions of passion. This is based on the works of authors such as Aquinas, Daly, Cicero and McLellan. In the conclusion of this prolusion, I suggest that there is a need to re-write a new methodology. One that transcends our current juncture that promotes stances belonging to foundationalism, anti-foundationalism and non-foundationalism. It is my ardent belief, that this is a necessary course of action and will enable the subject of passion to be spoken to as never before.