Was Marx a scientist? Did he deny the existence of an endowed human nature? Did his theory permit his predictions or imply Stalinism and Maoism? Alan Dent argues Marx made the mistake of thinking the internal coherence of his theory made the world intelligible which led him to claim mere assertions were proven. His embrace of empty organism theory removed what Dent sees as the moral barrier to treating others as means to our ends: the recognition of our shared human nature. By theorising historical inevitability, he removed the possibility of moral choice as what is inevitable is, by definition, beyond choice. The concept of “the dictatorship of the proletariat” was a hostage to fortune. Dent examines Marx’s character before enumerating his mistakes and considering how they influenced the major inheritors of his theory. In the light of communist totalitarianism and the failure of the left over the past half century this critique of arguably the most influential theorist of an alternative to our existing economic arrangements, leads the author to rediscover the “innocent” idea from which the theory emerged. By returning to it, can a movement for economic democracy be elaborated? Dent argues against economic determinism of left and right and for the recognition that neither history nor the market decide. People do. Among the many studies of Marx, this volume makes new connections.