http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23459180

J Med Philos. 2013 Mar 4. [Epub ahead of print]

The Role of Moral Imagination in Patients' Decision-Making.

Rommetveit K, Scully JL, Porz R.

Source

University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway.

Abstract

This article reviews recent developments within a number of academic disciplines pointing toward an increasing importance of imagination for understanding morality and cognition. Using elements from hermeneutics and metaphor theory, it works toward a framework for a more context-sensitive understanding of human agency, especially focusing on moral deliberation and change. The analytic framework is used to analyze the story of a patient making tough decisions in the context of prenatal diagnosis. We show how a relatively stable outlook on the world, here called the "baseline of choice," is challenged by unexpected events and how imaginative processes enter into the active creation of a new moral order. The ensuing interpretation is then placed within a broader philosophical landscape. John Dewey's notion of "dramatic rehearsal" is put forward as one particularly promising way of understanding moral imagination, deliberation, and decision-making.