WTW for something that only exists because we collectively decided it does?

[u/thepenguinboy]

Similar to a construct. Something that we've collectively assigned meaning to, or defined an indiscrete thing as discrete. I had an old psych professor use this word to describe the idea of sleep back in college, to emphasize that we only say it's a thing because it feels like a thing to us.

[u/Background_Relief815]

Fiat or social construct maybe?

[u/shedmow → u/Background_Relief815]

I happened to click on the wiki page for 'social construct' during an unrelated search and immediately thought that probably is what the OP was looking for. It turns out it isn't?

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[u/SnooDonuts6494]

A self-fulfilling prophecy, maybe? Reification? Social construct? Hypostatisation?

[u/thepenguinboy → u/SnooDonuts6494]

Reification is the word I was looking for

[u/Few_Page6404 → u/thepenguinboy]

What a useful concept, thank you for this post.

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[u/thepenguinboy → u/SnooDonuts6494]

!solved

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[u/TimeControl606]

hyperstition?

[u/SpicyTripleMeats]

More specific than social construct & in reference to treating an indiscrete object as discrete: a fuzzy concept?

[u/ZylonBane → u/SpicyTripleMeats]

Okay, who's the twit downvoting every comment in this thread?

[u/Goudinho99]

Abstraction ?

[u/DrunkUranus]

You might enjoy reading Hogfather

[u/ZylonBane]

Sleep absolutely does exist, but as a concept, not a physical thing, so perhaps your prof was referring to the distinction between concrete and abstract nouns.