The concept of deliberation , which comes from the Latin deliberatio , refers to the act and result of deliberating : analyzing the benefits and disadvantages of a decision before making it or discarding it according to the expected effects.
For example: "The court decided to postpone the deliberation on the legality of the measure announced by the governor" , "The partners' deliberation will last several weeks" , "The jury began deliberating on the verdict yesterday" .
Deliberations take place in all areas of life. Sometimes it is an informal and spontaneous process ; In others, they are part of a pre-established mechanism and subject to certain rules .
It is important to mention that a deliberation can be individual . Suppose a person has to decide what to prepare for dinner. Before making a decision, open the pantry and refrigerator to see what ingredients are at your disposal. Then an internal deliberation begins to define the appropriate menu according to its possibilities.
The members of a married couple, on the other hand, can develop a deliberation before deciding the destination of their next vacation . Marcos suggests going to a beach , while Ana prefers to travel to the mountains . Both debate the points for and against each option until they reach an agreement.
In other contexts, deliberation is carried out in a more structured way. Legislators , to cite one example, deliberate before proceeding to a vote . The members of a court or jury do the same before a ruling .
The steps to carry out a deliberation, regardless of whether it is in a formal or informal setting, are as follows:
* define the desired objective : it is not possible to start deliberating if there is no goal, the desire to make a decision or carry out an action . On a personal level, it may involve issues such as those mentioned in the previous examples, which do not entail very important consequences, while on a legal level it may put on the balance the right of the accused to remain free or even alive;
* identify the pros and cons : deliberation consists precisely of consciously and carefully observing all the points for and against the decision we want to make, and that is why it cannot take place in a fraction of a second. We need to take time to look around us and anticipate what would happen if we continued forward;
* the verdict : both in a court and in our own home, after deliberation comes the verdict, that ruling, judgment or opinion that we issue after reflection and that sets the course of our actions from that moment on.
Since deliberation is opposed to negligence or lack of awareness when acting, it is logical that the decisions that arise from said moment of reflection and debate are worthy of penalties and reproaches if they entail serious consequences. We could say that in the absence of deliberation one acts on impulse, although with certain nuances it would also be correct to attribute the lack of foresight to habit.
The adverb deliberately serves to describe the way in which we act after deliberation, both internally and as a group. Depending on the context, it can be used to emphasize the careful planning behind a decision, but also to scold someone who has broken a rule, for example: "You can tell that your steps are deliberate, that you carefully analyze the path and every step." one of his movements before moving forward" , "I don't understand why you did this, much less that you acted deliberately."