On the problem of what happens to a particular thinkers ideas 
as they get passed on and used and transformed by later generations, 
let me paraphrase the philosopher William Bartley: 
 
"Our ideas are autonomus in just the same sense that Marx had 
in mind:  they outgrow our control, cross our expectations,  
nullify our calculations, and transcend our purposes.  They are 
a product not fully known to their producers." 
 
 
Greg Ransom 
Dept. of Philosophy 
UC-Riverside