Reification
Also called: Treating an idea as a thing
Treating an abstraction as if it were a real thing that acts.
How to spot it
Is “the market”, “society” or “history” doing something as if it were a person?
Example
“History will punish them.”
How to answer it
Ask which people are acting, and what they actually did.
Related
- Equivocation: Using a word in two different senses within one argument.
- Single cause: Blaming one factor for something that has several causes.