ABSTRACT
Discussion of Marx’s charge that capital exploits labor has usually been characterized by two ideas: (1) The defensibility of this charge depends on accepting Marx’s ‘labor theory of value’ and (2) since the very word ‘exploitation’ means or connotes wrongfulness or injustice, the charge is in considerable tension with Marx’s rejection of moral rhetoric and with his occasional insistence that capitalism involves no injustice to the worker. In this chapter, I will argue against both ideas. They involve misunderstandings of Marx’s views, usually occasioned by philosophical misunderstandings of the concept of exploitation itself.
