>[!abstract]
>Reification (Latin _res_ ("thing") and _facere_ ("to make")) is a fallacy of ambiguity, when an abstraction (abstract belief or hypothetical construct) is treated as if it were a concrete real event or physical entity. In other words, it is the error of treating something that is not concrete, such as an idea, as a concrete thing. A common case of reification is the confusion of a model with reality: "[[The map is not the territory|the map is not the territory]]" (Wikipedia, 2025).
>[!related]
>- **North** (upstream): [[Marxist theory]] (especially Georg Lukács’ use of reification to describe how social relations in capitalism are objectified and appear as natural things)
>- **West** (similar): [[Commodification]] (the process of turning goods, services, or even social relations into marketable commodities), [[Vicious abstractionism]]
>- **East** (different): [[Deconstruction]] (critical approaches that expose how taken-for-granted concepts and categories are socially constructed rather than naturalized "things")
>- **South** (downstream): [[Thingification]] (the practical or everyday manifestation of reification — treating relationships or abstractions as objects)