Preference, Deliberation and Satisfaction

Abstract

What is preference? And how does preference formation relate to deliberation? The paper offers an account of preference in the first section, deliberation in the second, and then attempts to show how the two relate. The main idea is that while deliberation leads us towards the option for which we have the strongest preference, that does not mean that we are generally focussed on how options promise to satisfy our preferences. The option we come to prefer is preferred most strongly because it proves in deliberation to have the strongest support, not the other way around.