A little game: What do this painting by René Magritte and the word, reification, have in common?
(Wiki: Reification n., to treat that which is abstract as something tangible; the error which consists in treating as a "thing" something which is not one... i.e. the thingification of social relations.)
Meredith: The picture above is a rendering of something, a concept that we recognize in the material form as a 'pipe', but it is not a pipe.
Aki: Right. I think of God, treating God as a thing, hijacking the unknowable into a thing that can be manipulated. Confusing the word God for God, confusing the symbol for the essence. (Is the opposite deification?)
3 comments:
Reification. What a useful word. I've been writing about it for a long time, but never knew there was a single word for it! Thanks, Meredith.
I'm also delighted that you too, illustrated it with Magritte's wonderful painting. I used it on my page "It's not about belief"
Thank you Jon for the link to your page. I enjoyed your article about belief vs. trust.
So often, all around us, we see what seems to be the turning of the concept into the material. It's helpful, I think, to bring conscious awareness to this tendency. We all can get lost in form from time to time.
Ah, humans think in patterns, a recurring problem in experiencing the ineffable. But this was a lovely way to put it :)
Peace and Blessings!
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