Undecidability haunts every decision and blocks assurance of justice

Evidence

The undecidable remains caught. lodged. at least as a ghost - but an essential ghost - in every decision, in every event of decision. Its ghosdiness dcconstructs from within any assurance of presence, any cenitude or any supposed criteriology that would assure us of the justice of a decision. — Chantal Mouffe, The Democratic Paradox, 355

Categorization

• DEFINE: Characterizes undecidability as an ineradicable ghost inside every decision, keying Mouffe’s agonistic distinction from rationalist decision theory.
• XREF: Connects to Derrida’s notion of undecidability as precondition of responsible decision, and opposes Habermasian consensus models the reader is assessing. — connects to: An aporia forces decisions that can never be pure or fully justified — Donna Landry and Gerald MacLean, The Spivak Reader: Selected Works of…, 2238; Decisions are made under irreducible uncertainty that evidence alone cannot resolve — Christine Daigle, Jacob Golomb (eds.), Beauvoir and Sartre: The Riddle of…, 490; Hidden value judgments, not logic, drive key judicial decisions — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 2550 (+5 more)

Broader Connections

• An aporia forces decisions that can never be pure or fully justified #corroborates (0.95) — Donna Landry and Gerald MacLean, The Spivak Reader, 2238
• Decisions are made under irreducible uncertainty that evidence alone cannot resolve #corroborates (0.88) — Christine Daigle, Jacob Golomb (eds.), Beauvoir and Sartre, 490
• Human fallibility justifies democratic decision-making over imposed certainty #responds-to (0.85) — Rebecca A. Martusewicz, Jeff Edmundson, and John Lupinacci, EcoJustice Education, 379
• Undecidability, not consensus, is the condition of democratic freedom #expands (0.82) — Chantal Mouffe, The Democratic Paradox, 150
• Formalism disguises the need for judicial choice by freezing rule meaning #expands (0.80) — HLA Hart, The Concept of Law (Clarendon Law…, 370
• Hidden value judgments, not logic, drive key judicial decisions #qualifies (0.78) — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 2550
• Model opacity makes algorithmic decisions unaccountable in courtrooms #exemplifies (0.78) — Brian Christian, The Alignment Problem, 61
• An ultimate power to decide generates its own norms and cannot be trusted #complicates (0.72)