> Marx himself wasn't really exploited, though he took money from
> Engels, who got it from exploited labor. So why should Marx have spent
> his life on a critique of capitalism if not for some moral/ethical
> reason? Ditto the many Marxist intellectuals of the last 150 years.
>
> And I thought that we wanted to get beyond a society based on
> self-interest.
"Self-interest" is ambiguous. I understand Marx to be elaborating a view of "self" and "interest" radically different from the view implicit is the usual usage of the term. According to him the human "self" is a potentially rational self and the "interest" of an actualized rational self is relations of mutual recognition. Selves preferring other kinds of relations (e.g. exploitive relations) aren't fully rational; they're mistaken about their self-interest. The ethical idea involved is wholly positive e.g. the claim is that mutual recognition sex would be a better experience than mutual exploitation sex.
Ted