120 philosophical essays you must read in your life

Chapter 77

Chapter 4 Section 17 Prejudice

[French] Voltaire

Prejudice is an opinion without judgment.

Therefore, people all over the world indoctrinate children with various opinions before they can judge right from wrong.

There are some prejudices that everyone has and are indispensable, and that is virtue.In many countries children are taught to know and worship a God who rewards and punishes them; they are told to respect and love their parents; Self-interested lying is seen as a bad behavior.

Therefore, there is a good bias, which is an opinion affirmed by judgment when we think rationally.

Feelings are not mere prejudices.A mother loves her son not because she is told to love her son, but because she loves her son involuntarily.It is not from any prejudice that a man runs to rescue a child of a stranger who is about to fall into the abyss, or is about to be devoured by wild animals.

But it is out of prejudice that a man respects a man who wears a certain dress and behaves solemnly, because his parents tell him that he should show respect before this man, and he respects this man before he knows whether he is worthy of respect or not. up.As he grows older, he sees that the man is a proud, selfish, and utterly hypocritical charlatan, and he begins to despise people he has always respected, and prejudice gives way to judgment.

A person who once believed in fairy tales told by others out of prejudice in childhood, at the age of 20 regards them as clever metaphors.

In fact, the formation of prejudice is often a biased opinion on something or something when one lacks judgment.Once some prejudices are formed, they often affect a person's correct judgment on things. If you still cling to your own prejudices, it will eventually lead to paranoia.Some prejudices will be eliminated after having a correct judgment, and the correct view of things will be restored.

【Together with you】

False prejudices, once established and sustained, become bigotry.Paranoid people often have an unfair view of the world, and this kind of paranoia will also lead people into misunderstandings.Pretentiousness always comes with a sense of putting yourself in the clouds and others in the valley.

(End of this chapter)