ABSTRACT
In many areas the law prefers "objective" over "subjective" standards for judging conduct. Tort law uses the reasonable person doctrine, contract law applies objective rules to determine when a contract has been formed and what its terms mean, and so forth. An objective standard focuses on the average, reasonable person—what would such a person have meant, thought, understood, or done—whereas a subjective standard focuses on what a particular individual meant, thought, or did. The debate on objective and subjective standards touches on issues of world-making and the social construction of reality. Powerful agents, such as tobacco companies and male dates, want objective standards applied to them simply because these standards always, and already, reflect them and their culture. Majority society has defined racial reality in such a way that relatively few acts are seen as carrying a racist meaning.
