Objecthood

Objecthood is the quality or status of being an object—something that can be perceived, thought about, or acted upon by a subject. In philosophy, the term is used to contrast objects as they appear in experience with the conscious subject that perceives them, and to discuss how objects acquire meaning, persistence, and independence within various theories of ontology and epistemology.

Within phenomenology, objecthood refers to how objects are given in consciousness. Husserl argued that objects are constituted in intentional acts and horizons, while Merleau-Ponty stressed the body's role in grounding object appearances. Heidegger distinguished between tools encountered in use (ready-to-hand) and objects that stand apart as present-at-hand, highlighting how the mode of engagement determines objecthood.

In cognitive science and psychology, objecthood concerns the unitary representation of objects: how perceptual systems bind features into object files, track objects across movement, and ignore irrelevant background. Theories address spatiotemporal continuity, occlusion, and identity over time.

In aesthetics and art, objecthood can refer to the palpable status of a work as an object in the world, or to strategies that foreground or dissolve objecthood to focus on process, concept, or perception.

In social theory and anthropology, the term is used to discuss how things—artifacts, texts, or data—are treated as objects of knowledge, intervention, and value, and how the social construction of objects affects agency and meaning.

See also: ontology; phenomenology; perception; object concept.