Abstract

Thomas Kelly's book 'Bias: A philosophical study', is a philosophical exploration of the phenomena of bias and our practice of attributing it. He delves into the multifaceted nature of bias and offers a norm theoretic account for conceptualizing the phenomenon as typically involving "systematic departures from the norms". As a topic of inquiry, bias has attracted comparatively less attention in philosophy than in other disciplines like psychology and statistics. Hence, this book is an interesting and relevant read. Scholars working in the areas of ethics, epistemology and social epistemology can greatly benefit from it. Practitioners of AI can also gain valuable insights from the study of bias. In my review of the book, I provide a critical summary of Kelly's main arguments while acknowledging its fruitfulness in understanding bias.