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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/36891
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Whenever I write, I run into the problem where I have to assign human actions to subjects that, when I contemplate about it, cannot realistically perform those actions. A teacher told me years ago that I should not be doing this, and it has stuck with me ever since, but I've never been able to figure out how to do it properly, and I wonder if the teacher was simply wrong. Consider the following examples:

1. Science helps us understand nature. (_can science perform an action like helping?_)
2. Western culture pursues worldwide equality. (_can Western culture perform an action like pursuing?_)
3. That company seeks to promote a product. (_can that company perform actions such as seeking and promoting?_) 

I know about other ways of writing the above sentences, but if I always resort to writing sentences like those below, I feel like every sentence will be long and tedious:

1. People who do science help us understand nature.
2. The people of Western culture pursue worldwide equality.
3. The people of that company seek to promote a product.

My question is whether the first three examples are valid, and I would appreciate it if I were to be provided with resources that help me overcome this hurdle in my writing if this style is bad practice (I don't know if there is a term for this problem, so I don't know what to enter into a search engine in order to find resources on this problem).

Original score: 4