By Rosie Arnaudova ’28 (DCI Fellow)
If we imagine debate as a duel, then we could think of deliberation as a roundtable, where everybody contributes to the conversation without competing. Since there are no ‘winners’ in deliberation, participants are given the freedom to agree, disagree and change their opinions when wrong and provided with better reasoning. They should leave behind their pride and welcome the opportunity to learn something new during discussions. For this purpose participants should also cast aside their prejudice when hearing opinions different from their own and listen with open minds. This, of course, does not imply that one should not have a strong position, but it is rather a reminder that often people struggle to accept that their logic might be flawed.
Last spring was my first experience with the DCI, when I joined as a participant in a D Team. My group was carefully selected and incredibly diverse when it came to both political opinions and people – with students from the US and abroad, and adults from the Davidson community with far more experience than us that gave us some professional perspectives on the issues we discussed. Our deliberation was an incredible learning experience for me because my teammates always gave their opinions accompanied with a story from their life, a reason that made them think the way they do. This made disagreeing hard because how can you disagree with somebody’s experience? Whatever prejudice I had towards certain statements was swiftly defeated by the personal insight provided for them. I thought, “I can’t judge a person for thinking this if this is what they have experienced.” and thus my learning journey began.
I would say that an important lesson for me then was to leave my pride behind. I was able to admit to myself that what I think is a product of my environment and since we were such a diverse group, people who grew up differently and in a different country often thought otherwise. I started viewing the concept of right and wrong answers differently, as there never was an absolutely correct answer – as a group we would discuss until we reached a consensus that one answer is simply more right than others. In this way I was able to see the bias in my own beliefs and open up to new perspectives. For instance, we were discussing the Covid-19 epidemic and whether we support full-lockdown. Everybody in the group was against it apart from a person who had lost a close relative. It was clear then that we all took it as an end goal to reduce suffering, despite having a different approach.
In conclusion, finding common ground through empathy and understanding benefits all. When you let go of your prejudice towards different ideas and forget your pride, you will be able to admit that you are wrong or have more clarity about the other person’s reasoning. This is what makes deliberation such a productive and educational experience that can give you a grasp on the full picture when trying to solve a problem.
