Objectification

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Objectification is the process by which abstract concepts are treated as if they were concrete things or physical objects. In this sense the term is synonym to reification.

Objectification also commonly refers to the regarding of a person as 'a thing'. For example, sexual objectification refers to the regarding of a person as merely a non-human object, or tool, for sex.

Philosopher Martha Nussbaum^[1] has argued that the objectification of something can be determined by the presence of the following factors:

• Instrumentality - treating as a tool for one's own purposes;
• Denial of autonomy - treating as if lacking in agency or self-determination;
• Inertness - treating as if lacking in agency;
• Ownership - treating as if owned by another;
• Fungibility - treating as if interchangeable;
• Violability - treating as if permissible to smash;
• and the denial of subjectivity - treating as if there is no need to show concern for the 'object's' feelings and experiences.

See also

• Description
• Sexual objectification
• Dehumanization
• Edward Said's Imagined geographies

References

1. ^ Martha C. Nussbaum, “Objectification”, Philosophy and Public Affairs, 24 (4), pp. 279-83

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