These moves can be seen as equating the conceptual content of "economics" with what is in fact mere form or ideology, instead of with the substance embodied by the specific decisive relations in which humans are engaged in any given period and locale.
Polanyi considered the roots of this fallacy to lie in a particularly pervasive form of subjectivity specific to the conditions of life in nineteenth century industrial economies, describing it as the "central illusion of an age".
[1] Contemporary scholars support the enduring prevalence of the fallacy,[2] which is further explained by Polanyi's analysis of its entrenchment in various institutions.
Polanyi developed the concept over time, devoting the first chapter of his posthumously-published book The Livelihood of Man to the subject.
The economistic fallacy is used to criticize both Marxist economics and classical liberalism, focusing on their assumptions built on materialism and rationality.