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Glite Dictionary
to hypostatize

to hypostatize

9.9
To treat an idea as if it were a real thing
  • verb
  • /haɪˈpɒstəˌtaɪz/
  • Formal
translation icon : hipostatizar
  • In discussions about morality, some thinkers hypostatize ethical principles, treating them as real entities rather than human constructs.

Examples

  • Some people really believe that sin is a hypostatized, intelligent being of some sort in the cosmos.

  • What Dewey means by the qualitative includes and points to the dimension of our everyday experience that we call emotions or feelings, but he is concerned that we do not ontologize or hypostatize emotions and feelings as entities independent of or antecedent to our direct qualitative experiences.

    Academic text (2016)

  • Then, if we hypostatize it, we call it a feeling.

    Academic text (2016)

  • But that end cannot be held up as an ideal or hypostatized into a standard.

    Academic text (1990)

  • But it does not hypostatize and reify the subject in the way that Parker implies.

    Academic text (1990)

  • Morris presented the goal of anti-form sculpture in terms of hypostatizing this second structure of perception.

    Academic text (1997)

  • Beneath its analysis, there lies a hypostatizing distortion of the very notion it is attacking.

    Academic text (1990)

  • She hypostatized, becoming a vessel for the containment of spirit.

    Academic text (1996)

  • While he is certainly innocent of viewing society's current state as an unalterable state of affairs, he hypostatizes nature in its present state as something to be preserved, rather than transformed.

    Blog text (34)

  • The philosophers often hypostatize abstract concepts, treating ideas like love as if they were tangible objects.

Synonyms

to reify
vsto hypostatize
  • Formal
3 9.9

To think of an idea as a real thing

is about attributing actual existence to nonphysical concepts
to objectify
vsto hypostatize
2 7.4

To make an idea or feeling into a real, visible thing

is more about making something external than proving it exists
to concretize
vsto hypostatize
  • US
1 7.9

To make an idea or plan clear and specific

is about assigning real existence rather than merely making ideas specific
to corporealize
vsto hypostatize
  • Formal
1 9.9

To make an idea or feeling into something physical

is about attributing existence not necessarily making something physically real
to hypostasize
vsto hypostatize
  • Formal
9.9

To treat an idea or quality as a real, separate thing

is more general and applies outside philosophical contexts

Surface Forms

hypostatize infinitive
hypostatized past
hypostatized past participle
hypostatizing present participle
hypostatizes third person singular

Morphology

hypostatize = hypostasis (transparent) = hypostasis + ize

The verb is formed by the regular noun-to-verb suffix '-ize' applied to 'hypostasis', so the action 'to make or regard as a hypostasis' is predictable from the base.

Etymology

Hypostatize comes from Greek parts hypo- 'under' and stasis 'standing', originally meaning an 'underlying thing' or substance. So to hypostatize something is to treat an idea as if it were a real, standing thing, in other words to turn a concept into a 'substance'.