Bioethics and deliberative democracy: five warnings from Hobbes.

Area of Science:

• Political Philosophy
• Democratic Theory
• Bioethics

Background:

• Thomas Hobbes critiqued participatory democracy, advocating for absolute sovereignty.
• His arguments against participatory models remain relevant despite his proposed alternative being outdated.

Purpose of the Study:

• To analyze five key theses from Hobbes's critique of participatory democracy.
• To highlight the liabilities of participatory and deliberative democracy, particularly in bioethics.
• To propose a modus vivendi approach as an alternative for bioethics deliberative practices.

Main Methods:

• Elaboration of five critical theses from Thomas Hobbes's political philosophy.
• Analysis of Hobbes's critique in the context of modern participatory and deliberative democracy.
• Application of Hobbesian warnings to the field of bioethics and its consensus-based models.

Main Results:

• Hobbes's critique offers valuable insights into the potential pitfalls of participatory democracy.
• Five specific Hobbesian theses serve as warnings against certain forms of democratic engagement.
• The rational consensus model in deliberative bioethics may be particularly vulnerable to these critiques.

Conclusions:

• Hobbes's critique of participatory democracy provides enduring warnings for contemporary political thought.
• A modus vivendi approach offers a potential alternative for structuring deliberative democracy in bioethics, moving beyond consensus models.