From his first writings, Marx was never content with stating his own views and criticizing those of others. In addition, he wanted to explain how others came to hold their erroneous views. The theories of others were not treated mainly as alternative views of the same social reality that he also studied – as legitimate if possibly incorrect explanations of society. Rather he considered them to be part of the reality to be explained.

In the normal view, the fact that an idea is deemed true or beautiful is sufficient to explain why it is accepted, and the fact that it is deemed false or ugly is sufficient to explain its rejection … What requires special explanation are the cases in which, in spite of the truth or beauty of an idea, it is not accepted, or in spite of its ugliness or falsehood it is accepted. The meme's eye view purports to be a general alternative perspective from which these deviations can be explained … The theory becomes interesting only when we look at the exceptions, the circumstances under which there is a pulling apart of the two perspectives. Only if meme theory permits us better to understand the deviations from the normal scheme will it have any warrant for being accepted. (Note that in its own terms, whether or not the meme meme replicates is strictly independent of its epistemological virtue; it might spread in spite of its perniciousness, or go extinct in spite of its virtue.)