1. Although I belong to a school of thought which has been called analytical Marxism, I am, like other partisans of this position, and as is manifest in the preceding chapters of this book, engaged by questions in moral and political philosophy which have not, in the past, attracted the attention of Marxists. Analytical Marxists are concerned with exactly what a commitment to equality requires, and with exactly what sort of obligations productive and talented people have to people who are relatively unproductive, or handicapped, or in special need. We seek a precise definition of what exploitation is, and we want to know exactly why it is wrong.

What explains this rather novel involvement, novel, that is, for Marxists, or even – for it is no doubt, by now, more accurate to call us this – for semi-Marxists? I do not think that it is explained by the fact that, unlike the Marxists of yore, we are academics with relatively well paid jobs who get money and recognition through pursuing those questions and propounding our answers to them.