Scientific Paper 5: : The Dignity of the Thing: Lacan’s Ethics of Sublimation Speakers: Author: Mari Ruti, PhD (Toronto, Canada) This paper illustrates why Lacan’s theory of sublimation — of raising an ordinary object into “the dignity of the Thing” — introduces a code of ethics that enables the individual to resist dominant social norms. This alternative ethical code is not a matter of deliberating on the rightness or wrongness of actions, but rather of following the thread of one’s desire even when doing so proves socially inconvenient. Because it allows the individual to create space for desires, values, and patterns of appreciation that reach beyond the “reality principle” of the collectivity, it functions as an effective antidote to contemporary nihilism. | 
