Chapter 3 Philosophy of Nursing

Phenomenologists

Truth is in human consciousness. (Husserl, Heidegger)

Rationalists

All things are knowable by man's deductive reasoning. (Descartes, Spinoza)

Existentialists

If truth can be found, it can only be found through man's search for self. (Sartre, Merleau-Ponty, Gadamer)

An intrinsic value is required for

Living

Value redistribution occurs

Ouccurs when society changes views about a particular value.

Postmodernists

Truth can be found in the deconstruction of language. (Derrida) Truth is (evolves from) the outcomes of events. (Foucault) Truth is created through dialogue with a purpose of emancipatory action. (Habermas, Freire) Truth is unique to gender. (Feminists)

Classical philosophers

Truth corresponds with reality, and reality is achieved through our perceptions of the world in which we live. Truth could be found in the natural world—through our sensory experiences. (Heraclitus, Aristotle) Truth can be found in the natural world—through our rational intellect. (Parmenides, Plato) Truth is found when one knows self. (Socrates) Truth is not of this world. (Plotinus)

Idealists

Truth exists only in the mind. (Berkeley, Hegel, Kant)

Relativists

Truth is always dependent on the knower and the knower's context. (Kuhn, Laudan)

Empiricists

Truth is based on experience and relating to our experiences. (Bacon, Locke, Hume, Mill

Early existentialists

Truth is found through man's faith in his existence as it relates to God. (Kierkegaard)

Pragmatists

Truth is relative and practical—if it works, then it is truth. (James, Peirce, Dewey)

Organicism

Understanding comes from patterns and relationships; must under- stand the whole to understand the parts (e.g., cannot look at a child's language development without looking at his or her overall development history).

Formism

Understanding events in relationship to their similarity to an ideal or objective standard comes from categorization (e.g., the classification of plants and animals in biology).

Mechanism

Understanding is in terms of cause-and-effect relationships, the common approach used by modern medicine.

Evaluative beliefs

beliefs that make a judgment about whether something is good or bad. The belief that social drinking is immoral is an evaluative belief.

Existential beliefs

can be shown to be true or false An example is the belief that the sun will come up each morning.

The four principal domains of nursing

person, environment, health, and nursing

Nursing values have been identified as

the fundamentals that guide our standards, influence practice decisions, and provide the framework used for evaluation

Prescriptive and proscriptive beliefs refer to

what people should (prescriptive) or should not (proscriptive) do. An example of a prescrip- tive or desirable belief is that everyone should vote. An example of an undesirable or proscriptive belief is that people should not be dishonest.

Values refer to

what the normative standard should be, not necessarily to how things actually are. Values are the principles and ideals that give meaning and direction to our social, personal, and professional lives.

Value acquisition refers to

when a new value is assumed, and value abandon- ment is when a value is relinquished.

Positivists

Truth is science and the facts that science discovers. (Comte, Mill, Spencer)

an extrinsic value is

not required for living and is originated external to the person.

Though no single definition of philosophy is uncontroversial, philosophy is defined in the following ways by the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000):

• Love and pursuit of wisdom by intellectual means and moral self- discipline • Investigation of the nature, causes, or principles of reality, knowledge, or values, based on logical reasoning rather than empirical methods • A system of thought based on or involving such inquiry; for example, the philosophy of Hume • The critical analysis of fundamental assumptions or beliefs • The disciplines presented in university curriculums of science and the liberal arts, except medicine, law, and theology • The discipline comprising logic, ethics, aesthetics, metaphysics, and epistemology • A set of ideas or beliefs relating to a particular field or activity; an underly- ing theory; for example, an original philosophy of advertising • A system of values by which one lives; for example, has an unusual

Idealism

• The world is evolving. • There is more than meets the eye. • The social world is created. • Reality is a conception perceived in the mind. • Thinking is dynamic and constructive.

Poststructuralists

Truth (if there is truth) is not singular and is always historical.

Theocratics

Truth comes through an understanding of God. Truth can be found through both the senses and the intellect. (St. Thomas Aquinas)

Contextualism

Understanding is embedded in context; meaning is subjec- tive and open to change and dependent on the moment in time and the person's perspective.

paradigm

is the lens through which you see the world

Realism

• The world is static. • Seeing is believing. • The social world is a given. • Reality is physical and independent. • Logical thinking is superior.