It’s a mistake when confusing an abstract process with a real-world process of the same name. An example from The Beginning of Infinity is the study of decision making. The assumptions that are built into their models are a simplified version of actual real-world decision making because there is not a good explanation of how it works in reality.
See also:
- Abstractions are real, but a Zeno’s mistake is substituting an explanation with an abstraction.
- Parochial errors happen when you have a narrow view