Both Uses of
bias
in
Moby Dick
- …parts in high tragedies, and short and easy parts in genteel comedies, and jolly parts in farces—though I cannot tell why this was exactly; yet, now that I recall all the circumstances, I think I can see a little into the springs and motives which being cunningly presented to me under various disguises, induced me to set about performing the part I did, besides cajoling me into the delusion that it was a choice resulting from my own unbiased freewill and discriminating judgment.†
Chpt 1-3
- I should like to conclude the chapter with the above appeal, but cannot, owing to my anxiety to repel a charge often made against whalemen, and which, in the estimation of some already biased minds, might be considered as indirectly substantiated by what has been said of the Frenchman's two whales.†
Chpt 91-93 *
Definition:
-
(bias) a personal preference -- especially a prejudice that prevents objective consideration
or:
any tendency to move in a particular direction -- such as a car that tends to want to swerve toward the right