the philosopher roger scruton criticized althusser for falsely claiming that "das kapital" had been ignored by bourgeois economists, ignoring criticism of the labor theory of value, and treating marx's work as though it were beyond criticism, in "thinkers of the new left" (1985). he also described "reading capital" as pretentious and obscure. andrew levine wrote in "the cambridge dictionary of philosophy" (1999) that, together with "for marx", "reading capital" caused a sensation in french intellectual circles, attracted a large international readership, and helped shape the development of marxist thought in the english-speaking world throughout the 1970s.