Misplaced Concreteness
The error of interpreting an economic model, representing a simplified version of reality, as if it were real life.
For example, neoclassical economics has a tendency to reduce complex ideas down to a level at which they can be fitted into equations. There is nothing necessarily wrong with that, so long as the conclusions drawn from the equations are recognised as only cartoons, or sketches of parts of the whole picture, and as true only under particular assumptions.
The Fallacy of Misplaced Concreteness occurs when these models are taken literally, and interpreted as the whole reality.M17
Related entries:
Reductio ad Absurdum, Galley Skills, Metaphor, Reductionism.
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