Bias Or Prejudice

1 bi.as

Etymology: Middle French biais

1. to give a settled and often prejudiced outlook to
2. to apply a slight negative or positive voltage to (as an electron-tube grid)

3. a : BENT, TENDENCY

   b : an inclination of temperament or outlook; especially : a personal and sometimes unreasoned judgment : PREJUDICE

   c : an instance of such prejudice

   d

   (1) : deviation of the expected value of a statistical estimate from the quantity it estimates

   (2) : systematic error introduced into sampling or testing by selecting or encouraging one outcome or answer over others

prej.u.dice

Etymology: Middle English, from Old French, from Latin praejudicium previous judgment, damage, from prae- + judicium judgment -- more at JUDICIAL

1. injury or damage resulting from some judgment or action of another in disregard of one's rights; especially : detriment to one's legal rights or claims

2. a

   (1) preconceived judgment or opinion

   (2) an adverse opinion or leaning formed without just grounds or before sufficient knowledge

   b an instance of such judgment or opinion

   c an irrational attitude of hostility directed against an individual, a group, a race, or their supposed characteristics

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To look at me and note that I am a christian, black, asian, atheist, agnostic, or woman first, and not just a person is showing bias and prejudice. Do not do to me what you claim you are so against. Judgments are based on the person you are interacting with, not the title you may pin on yourself or others. There is a fine line between speaking your mind and showing bias or prejudice. The line is so thin you may not even see that you have crossed it. -- KathyBracy

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To look at me and note that I am [...] and not just a person is showing bias and prejudice.

While I agree one thousand percent with the idea expressed here, I think our first encounter with intelligent aliens is going to call into question our best present notions of what a "person" is. The point I'm getting to is bias and prejudice is a very hard thing to define our way out of, because of the almost implicit bias or prejudice involved in the limiting definition (here, "person".)

You know, and if we redefine 'person' as 'language and technology using entity' - or rather, substitute 'person' with 'language and technology using entity' in our attempt to include our new, intelligent, benevolent, giant squid, alien, spacefaring friends into our updated anti-prejudicial limiting definition... then I think it might call into sharper focus:

a) the importance recognition of our differences (female, male, christian, atheist, human, spacefaring squid) plays in gaining an understanding of some underlying core similarity--whatever it is--that cuts beneath the possibility of bias or prejudice. (Unless someone will say it's possible to be prejudiced against that which you share with others?!)

b) a possible bias or prejudice lurking in our present formulation of the idea of a "person" if it is to exclude other nonhuman 'language and technology using entities' we already share the planet with. (We have identified other species with these properties right?)

The point being of course that it is a "thin line" indeed, and perhaps a tenuous one subject to our best present understanding of who and what we are?

-- BillKelly (Who personally is not a vegetarian, and who is pro-choice: but who simultaneously is not completely at-ease with all implications of either position)

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I have a question about Prejudice: I assume most people can relate to this, that when you hear names of countries that you don't have a lot of first hand experience with, you still (often instantly) have some kind of positive or negative feeling about them. (Think for example of the question: Would you make a 3-week vacation in ...? Would you want to work and live for 2 years in ...?) And I recently had a discussion with someone about this, who claimed this was not prejudice, but merely some sort of intuition - the point of the discussion was, I guess, that the other person didn't want to call it prejudice, because of the negative connotation.

Would you agree that it is prejudice? Is this something you act (i.e. make decisions) on?

Fear of the unknown. Unfortunately, many people make choices based on this. It is best to go in search of information and educate oneself the best that one can, then do your best to make such judgments. But, prejudice does play a role here, because sadly many do use something unkind that they heard third-hand as an excuse not to do the work of investigation and education. As with most prejudice, usually what is at the bottom is some sort of fear: fear of the unknown; fear of differences; etc.

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CategoryOffTopic