reification

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Definition

Noun: 1. The act of treating an abstract idea or concept as if it were a concrete, physical object. This involves giving a material form to something that is not material. 2. The process of regarding a human being as a mere object, deprived of personal qualities or individuality. In social philosophy, this refers to treating people as things or commodities.

Examples of Usage
  • Abstract as Concrete:
    • The reification of "justice" into a statue with a blindfold and scales is a common artistic metaphor.
    • His argument suffered from the reification of the concept of "society," speaking of it as a single entity with its own will.
  • Human as Object:
    • The critic discussed the reification of workers in early industrial capitalism, where they were seen merely as units of labor.
    • According to Marx, the reification of social relations occurs when interactions between people are perceived as relationships between things.
Advanced Usage
  • In Social Theory: The term is central to Marxist and critical theory, describing how capitalist societies transform human relations and creative activities into quantifiable, tradable things ("commodities").
  • In Linguistics and Cognitive Science: Refers to the mental process where a complex process or abstract quality is conceptualized and spoken about as a discrete, bounded entity (e.g., turning the verb "govern" into the noun "government").
Variants and Related Words
  • Reify (verb): To make something abstract more concrete or real.
    • Example: We must be careful not to reify statistical averages, treating them as descriptions of real individuals.
  • Reified (adjective): Describes something that has undergone reification.
    • Example: The reified concept of "the market" is often invoked in economic debates.
Synonyms
  • Hypostatization: Treating an abstraction as a concrete entity.
  • Objectification: Treating a person as an object, often with a focus on denying autonomy or dignity (common in feminist theory).
  • Materialization: The process of coming into physical existence (can be neutral, unlike the often-critical "reification").
Related Idioms and Phrases
  • To treat as a thing: A less technical phrase conveying the core idea of reification, especially regarding people.
    • Example: The bureaucracy seemed designed to treat citizens as things, not as individuals.
Noun
  1. representing a human being as a physical thing deprived of personal qualities or individuality
    • according to Marx, treating labor as a commodity exemplified the reification of the individual
  2. regarding something abstract as a material thing

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