Dewey and Sartre on Ethical Decisions: Dramatic Rehearsal Versus Radical Choice

A highly detailed application of Dewey's "dramatic rehearsal" to a particular ethical dilemma situation is developed here. This illustrates the role of moral imagination and creativity, and of self-discovery and self-transformation, within dramatic rehearsal. A primary concern is to show how decisions emerge through unification; what sorts of decisions emerge; how they can be evaluated; and whether the choices and evaluations accord with what is generally taken to be ethical/moral. Sartre's dilemma of a French student during World War II—who is torn between staying with his mother who needed him and making his way to England to join the Free French Forces—provides the illustrative case. Using this case leads to a comparison of Dewey's and Sartre's approaches, and to a Deweyan reinterpretation and reconstruction of the process of decision in Sartre's early ethical theory. Criteria that Sartre, rightly, rejects as determinants of decision are shown to function in dramatic rehearsal as instruments for exploring the meanings of the dilemma. Sartre's analogy between making an ethical decision and creating a painting is explored in terms of Dewey's esthetic theory. This illuminates how dramatic rehearsal develops, and how it culminates in ethical decision. The idea that one makes oneself as one makes one's decision is shown to flow from the painting analogy, in both Sartre and Dewey. How this Deweyan account relates to Sartre's theory of radical choice is considered. Openings for the Deweyan perspective are sought in a brief exploration of Sartre's later ethical theories.