Form: Quote Commentary

A Problem of Analogistic Language (Borrowed Terms)

—“it’s impossible to purge our minds of prejudice. Only after we have made a scientific advance can we then, retroactively, tell that we held onto a prejudice (such as the Earth not moving) that was hindering our progress.”—Michael Phillip

MEANINGS

(a) Prejudice (in the legal sense of the term) as in ‘with prejudice’ is meant to convey ‘punishment’ or ‘teaching of a lesson’. (b)Pre-judgement is necessary for the defeat of time – particularly when the cost of the failure of one’s assumptions is small. (c) Cognitive Bias is to be circumvented at all times. (d) Moral Bias is a reflection of our reproductive strategies, and only a problem when we claim it is a universal truth or good, rather than an expression of our genetic demand.

To avoid this problem I use Prejudice, Pre-judgement, Cognitive Bias, Moral Bias, as discreet terms and do not conflate them by the use of a familiar term (even if colloquially accepted).

INDIVIDUAL AND INTERPERSONAL, CLASS AND POLITICAL

In my experience, and the empirical data supports this, it is illogical to use prejudice on an individual basis, and illogical not to use prejudice in a political context. The reason being that while we cannot judge an individual by the properties of a class, we can judge the class by the demonstrated properties of its individuals. In fact, it is illogical to judge a class other than by the demonstrated properties of individuals.