Deliberation and Forgiveness in the Public Sphere

Critical Horizons 19 (1):49-66 (2017)
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Abstract

A common objection to the argument for deliberative democracy is that it cannot provide mechanisms for achieving its ideal of all-inclusiveness. This does, however, not in itself refute the deliberative ideal. In a reading of Hannah Arendt and Jacques Derrida’s writings on forgiveness, we argue that forgiving involves a renegotiation of our enemies and of ourselves. Hereby a renegotiation of the seemingly unbridgeable understandings of who our enemies are can be achieved. Forgiving involves a realisation that we have something in common with our foes. This opens the question: Why did our paths separate? We become puzzled and start to search for reasons. This does not mean that we have to accept ways of life that we detest. But it does mean that we need to be able to articulate counter arguments. Hereby limitations of prevailing understandings of who to include in deliberative processes can be overcome.

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A Theory of Justice: Revised Edition.John Rawls - 1999 - Harvard University Press.
Why Deliberative Democracy?Amy Gutmann & Dennis F. Thompson - 2004 - Princeton University Press.
The animal that therefore I am.Jacques Derrida - 2008 - New York: Fordham University Press. Edited by Marie-Louise Mallet.
On Liberty.John Stuart Mill - 1859 - Broadview Press.

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