Top Marx

Bruce Crichton (Letters, ­10 October) declares: “Marx denies that man has even the capacity for reason and holds that his mind is determined by the economic circumstances of his birth.”

One wonders whether Mr Crichton has ever looked into what Karl Marx wrote or whether he has merely recycled some demonising caricature from the more rabid proselytisers for predatory capitalism.

An intelligent reading of the texts might suggest that, according to Marx, man is capable of an intelligent and creative engagement with the world around him but that economic factors condition the options that at any given moment are available to him for the pursuit of human fulfilment.

What is wrong with that?

Paul Brownsey

Dept of Philosophy

Glasgow University

Glasgow