An analogy might be the idea that human slaves were capable of intelligent reasoning  A proposition still meeting denial in the further reaches of the Marxist Left and the Lunar Right. Capital, vol. 3, chapter 47: “ The possibility is here presented for definite economic development taking place, depending, of course, upon favourable circumstances, inborn racial characteristics, etc...” Engels: (Marx and Engels, Selected Works, Vol. 3, p. 502.): “We regard economic conditions as the factor which ultimately determines historical development. But race is itself an economic factor ... ”.