Exploitation’s grounding problem
Standard accounts of what makes exploitation wrong ground its wrong in distributive unfairness: when A exploits B he wrongs her by taking a greater share of the benefits from their interaction than he ought. I argue that this standard account does not succeed; distributive unfairness is neither the...
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| Published in | Economics and philosophy Vol. 41; no. 2; pp. 357 - 375 |
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| Main Author | |
| Format | Journal Article |
| Language | English |
| Published |
Cambridge, UK
Cambridge University Press
01.07.2025
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| Subjects | |
| Online Access | Get full text |
| ISSN | 0266-2671 1474-0028 1474-0028 |
| DOI | 10.1017/S0266267124000397 |
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| Abstract | Standard accounts of what makes exploitation wrong ground its wrong in distributive unfairness: when A exploits B he wrongs her by taking a greater share of the benefits from their interaction than he ought. I argue that this standard account does not succeed; distributive unfairness is neither the sole, nor the primary wrong of exploitation. I assume that distributive unfairness is pro tanto wrong. However, I argue that in situations where transactors’ consent to a transaction is morally valid, it is also morally transformative and overrides distributive unfairness’s pro tanto wrong. Thus, wrongful exploitation requires morally invalid consent. |
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| AbstractList | Standard accounts of what makes exploitation wrong ground its wrong in distributive unfairness: when A exploits B he wrongs her by taking a greater share of the benefits from their interaction than he ought. I argue that this standard account does not succeed; distributive unfairness is neither the sole, nor the primary wrong of exploitation. I assume that distributive unfairness is pro tanto wrong. However, I argue that in situations where transactors’ consent to a transaction is morally valid, it is also morally transformative and overrides distributive unfairness’s pro tanto wrong. Thus, wrongful exploitation requires morally invalid consent. |
| Author | Ferguson, Benjamin |
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| Copyright | The Author(s), 2024. Published by Cambridge University Press |
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| Keywords | distributive justice consent unfairness Exploitation |
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| Title | Exploitation’s grounding problem |
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