At the beginning of 1904 his book "Art and Morality" appeared, and Jászi hoped to begin qualifying as a Privatdozent with the aim of embarking on a university career. But soon politics took over, and he focused on trying to establish a socialist party that would at the same time appeal to Hungarian nationalism. He left for Paris in January 1905 and became acquainted with French academic and political life; he later wrote that the six months he spent there "shook me to the very core of my being and became the big thrill of my life." While there, he wrote an article called "The Sociological Method—Two Opinions" in which he supported the approach of Émile Durkheim. He wrote another article attacking Marx as "the great fetish of socialism," which alienated some of his more radical friends. He came to believe that the Hungarians were "just tardy, pale echoes of the great Western efforts, with no intellectual trend emerging from Hungarian soil to have a substantial impact on world civilization."