A Kantian Case against Sensitivity Readers Available to Purchase

Some publishers are commissioning sensitivity readers to edit works without the author's permission. While a set of high-profile cases have received public criticism, the publisher's ownership of the relevant material in each case has been thought to rule out any serious legal objection to the practice. This paper proposes that Immanuel Kant's distinctive legal framework supports the view that a publisher who commissions sensitivity readers without the author's permission thereby wrongs either the living author or the reading public.