"Forms of forced labor"

by Cholbi, Michael (2025)

Abstract

Abstract Philosophers of work generally agree that we are not morally required to work against our will (i.e., to engage in “forced labor”). Others can force us to labor by threatening to harm us or withhold some benefit from us unless we perform work of their choosing. Standardly, forced labor is wrong because it infringes upon the authority individuals have over their own labor that enables them to deploy their labor in the service of a wide array of basic interests. Nevertheless, in both simple hypothetical cases (e.g., where we require others’ labor in order to survive) and in actual cases where societies compel people to labor in order to protect others’ rights or vital interests, forced labor is not necessarily morally impermissible. Yet “hard labor” of the sort sometimes imposed on prisoners, in which individuals are made to labor purposelessly, cannot be morally justified and is in fact a form of rank subjugation or torture.

Links to Reference

• http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780197693643.013.0009

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