Review Essay: Thinking of Deliberation—A Test of the Ethical Appropriateness of Psychology and its Relevance for Everyday Life

Abstract

"Suchprozesse der Seele. Die Psychologie des Erwägens" ["Searching processes of the soul. The psychology of deliberation"] is a very good and representative introduction to contemporary psychological thinking and research. I recommend the book to anyone who would like to learn about the current state of psychology. On one level, the discussion about "deliberation" vividly shows non-specialists the current ways in which psychologists work. On another level, the book shows experts that psychology is currently unable to think about deliberation in an appropriate manner and to deal with the simultaneous presence of different or even oppositional properties. Deliberation is primarily understood as a decision-making process or more generally equated with thinking itself but in these articles deliberation is innovatively discussed as an independent concept. These articles are worthwhile reading and deliver all that could reasonably be expected of them. URN: urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs0901119

Keywords

• deliberation
• decision making
• ethics
• logic
• autogenesis