Concept
Deliberation
Overview
Deliberation is a process of thoughtfully exchanging and weighing options, for example prior to voting. Deliberation emphasizes the use of logic and reason as opposed to power-struggle, creativity, or dialogue. Deliberation ideally entails that the merits of an argument are considered, rather than the standing of the arguer.
Group decisions are generally made after deliberation through a vote or consensus of those involved.
In legal settings a jury famously uses deliberation because it is given specific options, like guilty or not guilty, along with information and arguments to evaluate. In "deliberative democracy", the aim is for both elected officials and the general public to use deliberation rather than power-struggle as the basis for their vote. Citizens' assemblies and mini-publics are examples of deliberative democratic institutions.
Individual deliberation is also a description of day-to-day rational decision-making, and as such is an epistemic virtue.
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
In the original texts
Passages from public-domain books where Deliberation is discussed.
Then each habit, each impulse, involved in the temporary suspense of overt action takes its turn in being tried out. Deliberation is an experiment in finding out what the various lines of possible action are really like. It is an experiment in making various combinations of selected elements of habits and impulses, to see what the resultant action would be like if it were entered upon.
John Dewey, Human Nature and Conduct
states what it is; names the idea; opens on it
From this it will be obvious, that deliberation is necessary; that uncertainty is necessary; that whatever part he takes, in consequence of this deliberation, it will always necessarily be that which he has judged, whether well or ill, is most probable to turn to his advantage. When the soul is assailed by two motives that act alternately upon it, or modify it successively, it deliberates; the brain is in a sort of…
Paul Henri Thiry Holbach, The System of Nature, or, the Laws of the Moral and Physical World. Volume 1
states what it is; names the idea; opens on it
If, therefore, a statement of a case, whether it be the whole statement or some portion of it, be a repelling of an accusation, then deliberation and demonstration are neither a statement of a case, nor any portion of such statement. But he himself asserts that it is a repelling of an accusation. He must therefore assert also that demonstration and deliberation are neither a statement of a case, nor a portion of…
Marcus Tullius Cicero, The Orations of Marcus Tullius Cicero, Volume 4
names the idea; states what it is
Therefore of things past, there is no Deliberation; because manifestly impossible to be changed: nor of things known to be impossible, or thought so; because men know, or think such Deliberation vaine. But of things impossible, which we think possible, we may Deliberate; not knowing it is in vain. And it is called DELIBERATION; because it is a putting an end to the Liberty we had of doing, or omitting, according to…
Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan
names the idea; states what it is
And plainly not every search is Deliberation, those in mathematics to wit, but every Deliberation is a search, and the last step in the analysis is the first in the constructive process. And if in the course of their search men come upon an impossibility, they give it up; if money, for instance, be necessary, but cannot be got: but if the thing appears possible they then attempt to do it.
Aristotle, The Nicomachean ethics of Aristotle
states what it is; names the idea
Related ideas
- John Rawls
- Jürgen Habermas
- Dialogue
- Political philosophy
- Giorgio Agamben
- Bruno Latour
- Michel Foucault
- Rationality
- Ernesto Laclau
- Chantal Mouffe
- Alain Badiou
- Hannah Arendt
- Group decision-making
Opposing perspectives
Place in the tradition
Part of Free will.