category mistake
A semantic or ontological error by which a property is ascribed to a thing that could…A semantic or ontological error by which a property (or category) is ascribed to a thing that could not possibly have that property.
Meaning
1 sensesA semantic or ontological error by which a property (or category) is ascribed to a thing that could not possibly have that property.
Origin
Popularized by philosopher Gilbert Ryle in The Concept of Mind (1949), where it is appliedPopularized by philosopher Gilbert Ryle in The Concept of Mind (1949), where it is applied to the notion of a ghost in the machine.
Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
Dictionary text adapted from Wiktionary (Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0) and Open English WordNet / Princeton WordNet (CC BY 4.0, WordNet License); shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. Example sentences and recordings are credited where they appear.