So, I imagine the following conversation between two people (A and B): A: It’s absurd to say ‘atheism is a kind of religion,’ B: Why? A: Well, ‘religion’ is a word with an agreed-upon meaning, and it denotes a particular category of structures in the world, specifically those with properties X, Y, Z, etc. Atheism lacks those properties, so atheism is not a religion. B: I agree, but that merely shows the claim is mistaken. Why is it absurd? A: (thinks) Well, what I mean is that any mind capable of seriously considering the question ‘Is atheism a religion?’ should reach the same conclusion without significant difficulty. It’s not just mistaken, it’s obviously mistaken. And, more than that, I mean that to conclude instead that atheism is a religion is not just false, but the opposite of the truth… that is, it’s blatantly mistaken.
Is A in the dialog above capturing something like what you mean?
If so, I disagree with your claim. It may be mistaken to characterize the practice of treating everyone the same as a form of bias, but it is not obviously mistaken or blatantly mistaken. In fact, I’m not sure it’s mistaken at all, though if it is a bias, it’s one I endorse among humans in a lot of contexts.
So, terminology aside, I guess the question I’m really asking is: how would I conclude that treating everyone the same (as opposed to treating different people differently) is not actually a bias, given that this is not obvious to me?
In the sense of “Nothing is a kind of something” or “atheism is a kind of religion”.
Hm.
OK.
So, I imagine the following conversation between two people (A and B):
A: It’s absurd to say ‘atheism is a kind of religion,’
B: Why?
A: Well, ‘religion’ is a word with an agreed-upon meaning, and it denotes a particular category of structures in the world, specifically those with properties X, Y, Z, etc. Atheism lacks those properties, so atheism is not a religion.
B: I agree, but that merely shows the claim is mistaken. Why is it absurd?
A: (thinks) Well, what I mean is that any mind capable of seriously considering the question ‘Is atheism a religion?’ should reach the same conclusion without significant difficulty. It’s not just mistaken, it’s obviously mistaken. And, more than that, I mean that to conclude instead that atheism is a religion is not just false, but the opposite of the truth… that is, it’s blatantly mistaken.
Is A in the dialog above capturing something like what you mean?
If so, I disagree with your claim. It may be mistaken to characterize the practice of treating everyone the same as a form of bias, but it is not obviously mistaken or blatantly mistaken. In fact, I’m not sure it’s mistaken at all, though if it is a bias, it’s one I endorse among humans in a lot of contexts.
So, terminology aside, I guess the question I’m really asking is: how would I conclude that treating everyone the same (as opposed to treating different people differently) is not actually a bias, given that this is not obvious to me?