Doing justice to that which matters

Michel Serres claims that if there is one way in which human societies differ from nonhuman societies it is that human societies surround themselves with objects. They necessarily do so, because in order to come into existence as a society, humans need these objects. Think for instance of religious objects, of objects of warfare and of money. In this chapter I want to analyze in what way objects give form to our reality and how these products of our imagination (to follow Spinoza) are being questioned by philosophy and art.