A fallacy which may be termed “the fallacy of the frozen abstraction” . . . consists of substituting some one particular concrete for the wider abstract class to which it belongs — [e.g.,] substituting a specific ethics (altruism) for the wider abstraction of “ethics.” Thus, a man may reject the theory of altruism and assert that he has accepted a rational code — but, failing to integrate his ideas, he continues unthinkingly to approach ethical questions in terms established by altruism.
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