ABSTRACT
In a development and synthesis of previous engagements with existential phenomenology and psychology, Bhaskarian realism and the ethical topics addressed in Being and Worth, Collier provides a compelling and very readable defence of objectivity in his latest book. As with all his writing, the argument is clear and forceful, its illustrative material manages to be both arresting and unassuming, and – unusually for a philosopher – there is a welcome leavening of anecdote and autobiographical reference. What I particularly liked about this work were the powerful arguments it offers for the importance of self-distancing. Against the postmodern tendency to endorse a constantly self-referencing, selfseeking and self-confirming engagement with the world, Collier reminds us of the importance of the detour via the object, of ‘reality-testing’, of the limitations and distortions that threaten epistemological narcissism, and of the forms of neglect and insensitivity to what is other to self – whether fellow humans, other creatures or inanimate being – that come with an overly subjectivist focus in ontology and ethics.
