Both in Marxist literature of the last hun? dred years and in the various attempts at refuting the Marxian theoretical legacy, the paradigm of production and the paradigm of work have mostly been understood as if they were interchangeable with one another. True enough, as we shall see, Marx himself cannot be completely acquitted of the charge of being the source of confusion. In what follows, I wish to make a clear-cut distinction between the two paradigms. I am going to argue that both imply perfectly different re? constructions of society and that the theore? tical attempts at falsifying the paradigm of production have not even affected the para? digm of work, and vice versa. Furthermore, I wish to show that both paradigms run into various difficulties and need to be supple? mented by various auxiliary principles in order to be maintained, if they can coherent? ly be maintained at all.