Conversation

False metonymy: when a thing stands in for a larger thing that isn’t actually a thing What examples come to mind based on this abstract definition?
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Catholic Church. You can find a congregation whose priest reports ultimately to authorities in the Vatican; this nominally stands in for a global community of all people with any sort of belief in Jesus, but there’s no jurisdiction that lets them massacre the heterodox anymore.
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On a related note, The Book as used in “people of The Book”. There are more than a few types of Muslim, Christian, Gnostic, and Jewish faith; not only do each of these main categories disagree with one another about what texts are canon, there’s endless disagreement on meaning.
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The brain is an actual human organ, but ends up standing in for human intelligence as located exclusively in the nervous system. But we store a whole lot of our minds in our built environment: it’s like believing ants are intrinsically capable, even without pheromones.
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