“Exploitation” is a widely used, though controversial term of moral criticism and societal analysis. Perhaps the best-known theoretical account of exploitation is the Marxist analysis of the capital–labor relation. But exploitation is also used in evaluative descriptions of a variety of practices, relationships, and institutions. Given this prominence in public discussion and saliency within the Marxist tradition, it has deservedly attracted the attention of philosophers. It is implicated in a number of ways in global justice concerns.
The English verb “to exploit” and its cognates are often simply equivalent in meaning with “use” or “take advantage of.” For example, it is common to speak of exploiting resources or opportunities; or in the context of games and competitions, of one team or player exploiting the weaknesses of an opponent. These are ethically innocent attributions of exploitation. But exploitation more often refers to uses or advantages taken that are in some way wrong,...
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Warren, P. (2011). Exploitation. In: Chatterjee, D.K. (eds) Encyclopedia of Global Justice. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-9160-5_442
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