The purpose of Forward the Foundation is plainly to explore and explain the mysterious Hari Seldon, the genius who is a legendary figure in most of the other books about the Foundation. What Asimov does is create a fully rounded figure. He humanizes Seldon and explains why and how he created psychohistory. Although he does not think he is, Seldon is an astute observer of society and politics. Even so, it does not take a genius to realize that the central government is losing its grip on the Galactic Empire. The decay is there for anyone to see. Thus Seldon's focus on psychohistory is motivated in part by his hope that the new science will enable him to stave off the Galactic Empire's collapse. Eventually, when psychohistory suggests that the collapse into barbarism is inevitable, he tries to use the science to shorten the duration of the barbarism...