Introduction

Summary

The introduction begins by acknowledging that the reasonable person is not just a powerful legal concept but also a legendary legal figure that is little understood. It explains briefly how the concept operates in practice and introduces the book’s core argument concerning empathetic perspective taking. Outlining the structure of the book, the introduction then proceeds to addressing the limitations of the analysis and the unique challenge of setting out to write a biography of the reasonable person without either caricaturising or fetishising it.