Prejudice Reconsidered: From Psychological Bias to Hermeneutical Horizon

Dennis Tion; Danilo Saguilabon Alterado

doi:10.53396/media.v7i2.925

Authors

Dennis Tion Saint Louis University
Danilo Saguilabon Alterado Panpacific Graduate School at Panpacific University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.53396/media.v7i2.925

Keywords:

Prejudice; Hermeneutics; Tradition; Bildung; Historically effected consciousness; Dialogue; Temporal Distance

Abstract

This essay revisits Hans-Georg Gadamer’s notion of prejudice (Vorurteil) as a legitimate condition of understanding, offering a complementary perspective to psychology’s prevailing treatment of prejudice as bias or distortion. Psychological approaches have illuminated the harmful effects of entrenched prejudice in perpetuating exclusion and injustice, yet they often emphasize its negative dimensions. Gadamer, by contrast, situates prejudice within the hermeneutical process as historically inherited orientations that shape interpretation. This article uses philosophical hermeneutics as an approach, drawing on Bildung (formation), tradition, and historically effected consciousness. The analysis highlights how prejudices function as initial frameworks that open the way for dialogue and meaning-making. Legitimate prejudice is marked by openness, receptivity, and the capacity for transformation through encounter, while illegitimate prejudice manifests as rigidity or ideological closure. The aim is to clarify and further articulate what constitutes legitimate prejudice that can be constitutive to the horizon of human understanding, one that calls for ongoing engagement with history, tradition, and difference. The article concludes that prejudices can be legitimate. Rather than advocating for the eradication of all prejudices, Gadamer’s framework encourages critical discernment and ethical humility, recognizing prejudice as both inevitable and potentially productive.

Author Biographies

Dennis Tion, Saint Louis University

Dennis N. Tion is a faculty member at Saint Louis University in Baguio City, Philippines. He earned his Master of Arts in Religious Studies from Saint Louis University, Philippines, in 2013. He was born in Tuguegarao City, Cagayan, Philippines, on February 16, 1985.

Danilo Saguilabon Alterado, Panpacific Graduate School at Panpacific University

Danilo Saguilabon Alterado is the Dean of the Panpacific Graduate School at Panpacific University, Philippines. He earned his PhD in Philosophy from Ateneo de Manila University in Quezon City, Philippines, in 2010. He was born in Tubao, La Union, Philippines, on November 8, 1962.

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