of material conditions and consciousness in Marxism. Some confusion undoubtedly derives from seemingly contradictory statements made by Marx. In the Poverty of Philosophy Marx writes that human beings are "both the authors and the actors of their own drama." (TPOP 115) Then in Capital Marx writes that human beings are "governed by laws not only independent of human will, consciousness and intelligence, but rather, on the contrary, determining that will, consciousness and intelligence." (C1 18) Engels attempts to resolve this seeming contradiction by putting forth a conception of reciprocal causality which stresses that while material conditions determine ideas, ideas in turn can change material conditions. The problem with Engels' characterization is that it accepts the very dichotomy between material conditions and consciousness that Marx is trying to reject and leaves out the conception of human beings as praxis which can overcome the need for this separation. That Marx could be so misunderstood (even by Engels) on this point is probably the result of Marx's devoting only a few sentences to a direct explanation of his break with the fundamental starting points of modern Western epistemology.