Prejudices, Philosophies and Language: Spinoza and His Strategies of Liberation

Abstract

The Enlightenment idea that prejudice is to be fought with rational knowledge and the later position of hermeneutics calling for an awareness that distinguishes positive, fertile prejudices from negative, infertile ones, do not seem able to produce strategies of liberation. In order to understand why it is so difficult to fight prejudices, the author goes back to the beginning of the modern reflection about prejudice made by Spinoza and his “atypical” modernity, which can allow us to shed light on this complex phenomenon. According to Spinoza, prejudice lies at the confluence of different elements: language, habit, experience, and daily morality.

Keywords

• Enlightenment
• Spinoza
• experience
• language
• prejudice