ABSTRACT
Stories are everywhere in the practice of health care. There are a million stories in the Naked City. There are 400 or so in a good-sized hospital, counting just the patients. They are often compelling stories, too, whether they are tragic or triumphant. The reading and study of stories has salutary effects on moral development through the enhancement of perceptiveness, sensitivity, sympathy, or other virtues. One of the most common claims is that stories can enlarge our base of morally relevant knowledge. This idea is expressed in a variety of ways. This chapter examines the idea that any ongoing narrative, and especially the 'narrative' of an individual life, carries with it an internal rationality that elevates one choice over another as the right or best one. A hermeneutic approach, oriented toward the close reading of narratives, may better note the significance of such elements imperceptible from the heights of ethical theory.
