The abject adjective has a clearly negative meaning, since it is equivalent to miserable, disgusting or hateful. Anything that deserves the contempt of others can be valued as something abject.
From an etymological point of view this word comes from the verb abiicere, which means to debase. Regarding the use of the term, it could be said that it is an unusual and even old-fashioned term. At the same time, its scant presence in ordinary language makes it a cultist.
If abject is something that can be despised, it is worth remembering some situations in which this adjective can be used.
Slavery is an abject institution
For centuries a part of the labor activity was carried out by slaves. This was possible because slavery existed as a legally accepted and recognized institution. However, some thinkers opposed it and considered it as something unworthy, indecent and abject. Defending slavery meant denying the individual freedom of some people. At the same time, it meant that the idea that we are all equal was not fulfilled, since some men were superior to others. The fact that the life of a human being could belong to another violated one's human dignity and this led to the abolition of slavery.
Child labor
The International Labor Organization (known by the acronym ILO) is a supranational institution that ensures the dignity of work. In this sense, one of the labor aspects that are explicitly denounced by the ILO is child labor. For a child to work in any activity is immoral, reportable, and outrageous. It is considered a form of exploitation, since a child is defenseless before adults. These considerations mean that child labor can be classified as something abject.
Why do we say that a behavior is abject?
Despite cultural differences, all humans have a sense of morality that pushes us to say that something is good or bad. As a general rule, there is a whole series of behaviors that are rejected by the majority and are valued as abject (murder, abuse or exploitation). Faced with this generalized rejection, it is worth asking the reason for it. There are several possible answers:
1) undesirable behaviors generate a feeling of disgust, disgust,
2) there are some supreme values that serve as a guide for our moral evaluations and
3) we cannot accept as good what we do not want for ourselves.
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