Marx does not deny that “tangible experience” argues for the dependence of man. But reality must be destroyed — this is the great concern of gnosis. In its place steps the gnostic who produces the independence of his existence by speculation. It would indeed be difficult to find another passage in gnostic literature that so clearly exposes this speculation as an attempt to replace the reality of being with a “second reality” (as Robert Musil called this undertaking).
– Science, Politics, and Gnosticism (2004), p. 24