Prejudice in Hume and His Contemporaries

Prejudice in Hume and His Contemporaries University College Dublin, 23-24 June 2026

Confirmed speakers:

Amy Schmitter (University of Alberta)

Jacqueline Taylor (University of San Francisco)

Ross Carroll (Dublin City University)

Elena Gordon (University College Dublin)

Description: The early modern concept of prejudice is currently receiving renewed attention along two dimensions. First, rising interest in early modern social and non-ideal epistemology has turned to theories of prejudice for explanations of group irrationality and group ignorance and, more generally, for early modern vice epistemologies. Second, theories of prejudice are interesting for how they intersect with emerging theories of social, racial, gender and national identity. Despite the centrality of prejudice to long-established narratives about the Enlightenment and the rise of the ‘new science’, these ‘social’ aspects of the concept remain understudied. 
David Hume's views on prejudice strikingly express these social dimensions. His central discussion of prejudice (Treatise 1.3.13) connects it to unreflective generalizations of humans based on perceived group membership. He couples this discussion with sophisticated socio-constructivist accounts of many kinds of social identity, that are at the same time limited by objectionable sexist and racist beliefs. 
This conference aims to investigate Hume’s theory of prejudice along the lines indicated above, but it will also look at his possible inspirations and at his own influence on later authors in the Scottish Enlightenment and beyond. Thus, spreading outward from Hume, the conference aims to produce a more comprehensive and sophisticated understanding of the social aspects of prejudice in the broad context in which he was writing.

Possible topics: Possible questions and topics can include, but are not limited to:

• What is prejudice?
• What are the social aspects of prejudice?
• What do authors theorize as the causes of prejudice? Which of these are 'social’ and which are ‘individual’?
• What are their views of group ignorance and irrationality?
• Can prejudice be overcome? How do social processes and institutions aid or hinder the overcoming of prejudice?
• Theories of prejudice as vice epistemologies
• Theories of prejudice and non-ideal epistemology
• Prejudice and race and gender
• Prejudice, civilization and progress
• Prejudice, sensibility and taste

The event is generously supported by the British Society for the History of Philosophy, the Mind Association, Taighde Éireann - Research Ireland, and the UCD School of Philosophy. It is organised as part of the project 'Hume and the Prejudiced Self', funded by Taighde Éireann - Research Ireland (grant number GOIPD/2025/1772).