Reification

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This page is part of the EvoWiki encyclopedia of fallacies. Browse: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Contents 1 Synonyms 2 Explanation 3 Category 4 Subfallacies 5 External Links 6 Examples in creationist arguments

Synonyms

• Anti-Conceptual Mentality
• Attributing Concreteness to the Abstract
• Concretism
• Hypostatization
• Hypostatization Fallacy
• Objectification
• Reification Fallacy

Explanation

You commit this fallacy if you put too much into an abstract concept - if you treat it like a real thing and forget where it comes from.

For example, if you think that life has become more complex, you are restricting your view to one extreme value of the complexity distribution of life. Most life forms are bacteria. The maximum complexity of a set is mathematically expected to increase with time even by chance alone.

Category

• Fallacy of Ambiguity
• Conceptual Fallacy
• Identification

Subfallacies

• Reification of the Existent
• Reification of the Possible
• Anthropomorphism

External Links

• Agnosticism/Atheism [1]
• Wikipedia [2]
• Atheism Web [3]

Examples in creationist arguments

• Complexity doesn't come from simplicity

See also the examples in the subfallacies.