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Pathetic fallacy

noun

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A metaphor which consists in treating inanimate objects or concepts as if they were human beings, for instance having thoughts or feelings.

    "Taking, therefore, this wide field, it is surely a very notable circumstance, to begin with, that this pathetic fallacy is eminently characteristic of modern painting. For instance, Keats, describing a wave, breaking, out at sea, says of it Down whose green back the short-lived foam, all hoar, Bursts gradual, with a wayward indolence."

  2. 2
    the fallacy of attributing human feelings to inanimate objects; ‘the friendly sun’ is an example of the pathetic fallacy wordnet

Etymology

Coined by British cultural critic John Ruskin in 1856 in his work Modern Painters. Here, fallacy does not refer to a logical fallacy, but should be understood as a falsehood, something that is untrue, while pathetic here means caused by an excited state of the feelings; thus, emotional misrepresentation, not contemptible illogic.

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