<P> "Untruth naturally afflicts historical information . There are various reasons that make this unavoidable . One of them is partisanship for opinions and schools . (...) if the soul is infected with partisanship for a particular opinion or sect, it accepts without a moment's hesitation the information that is agreeable to it . Prejudice and partisanship obscure the critical faculty and preclude critical investigation . The result is that falsehoods are accepted and transmitted ." </P> <P> English philosopher and scientist Francis Bacon (1561--1626), in the Novum Organum noted that biased assessment of evidence drove "all superstitions, whether in astrology, dreams, omens, divine judgments or the like". He wrote: </P> <P> The human understanding when it has once adopted an opinion...draws all things else to support and agree with it . And though there be a greater number and weight of instances to be found on the other side, yet these it either neglects or despises, or else by some distinction sets aside or rejects (.) </P> <P> In the second volume of his The World as Will and Representation (1844), German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer observed that "An adopted hypothesis gives us lynx - eyes for everything that confirms it and makes us blind to everything that contradicts it ." </P>

Which is the best definition for the term bias