Introduction

Abstract

The charge that an individual or group is guilty of objectifying some other individual or group, is, or once was, a fairly familiar feature of ethical and political discussion. The ‘objectification’ charge combines elements that established ethical and political theories seem content to consider separately, if they consider them at all. Objectification concerns the way we treat others, the way we understand them, and the way we represent them. This Introduction outlines the aims and structure of the book, which sets out to subject the concept of objectification to a form of critical scrutiny it has not previously received. In considering why contemporary applied and professional ethics has not previously paid close attention to objectification, it uncovers an apparent crisis afflicting the ethical principle of respect for persons. This in turn leads to the identification of a distinct class of moral wrongs – which I term interpretive moral wrongs – to which objectification belongs, and which have not previously been explicitly distinguished.