1. Christine Mae M. Tabernilla
“Sometimes all that is possible is to embrace the mystery, the
unknown, of a situation and allow it to be beyond reach or
understanding it for a while.” – Porter-O-Grady & Malloch

2. Nursing as a Science
• Science is logical, systematic, & coherent way
to solve problems and answer questions.
• It is a collection of facts known in area and the
process used to obtain that knowledge.

3. Nursing and Philosophy
• Philosophy studies concepts that structure thought
processes, foundations, and presumptions.
• It is an approach for thinking about the nature of
people, the methods that should be used to create a
scientific knowledge and the ethics involved. It denotes
a perspective, implying a certain broad, “taken for
granted” assumptions.
• Epistemology – a branch of philosophy that is
concerned with the nature and scope of knowledge. It
is referred to as the ‘ theory of knowledge’

4. Nursing and Philosophy
• Rationalism- the
power of reason
emphasizes the
importance of a
priori reasoning
• Theory-
then-research
strategy
(Reynolds)
• Empiricism-the
power of sensory
experience
 that scientific
knowledge was
discovered through the
generalization of
observed facts in the
natural world (Bacon)
 Research-then-theory

5. Early 20th Century Views of Science
and Theory
• Philosophers focused on the analysis of theory
structure, whereas scientist focused on
empirical research.
• Positivism (imposed on the mind by
experience) is the philosophy of science that
information is derived from logical and
mathematical treatments and reports of
sensory experience is the exclusive source of
all authoritative knowledge.

6. Emergent Views of Science and
Theory in the late 20th Century
• Empiricists argue that for science to maintain its objectivity, data
collection and analysis must be independent of a theory.
• Brown argues that the new epistemology challenged the empiricist
view of perception by acknowledging that theories play a significant
role in determining what the scientist will observe and how it will
be interpreted. He identified 3 different views of the relationship
between theories and observation:
1. Scientists are merely passive observers of occurrences in the
empirical world. Observable data are objective truth waiting to be
discovered.
2. Theories structure what the scientists perceived in the empirical
world.
3. Presupposed theories and observable data interact in the process of
scientific investigation.

7. Interdependence between Theory
and Research
• A theory should be judged
based on the basis of
scientific consensus.
• The acceptance of scientific
hypothesis through
research depends on the
appraisal of the coherence
of theory
• Dubin identified when
scientific consensus is
necessary:
1. on the boundaries of the
theory; the phenomenon
it addresses and what it
excludes
2. on the logic used in
constructing the theory to
further understanding
from a similar perspective
3. that the theory fits the
data collected and
analyzed though research

8. Issues in Nursing Philosophy and
Science Development
• Four fundamental patterns of knowledge in
Nursing (Carper, 1978)
– Empirical knowlegde
– Esthetic knowledge
– Moral knowledge
– Personal knowledge
• 1980s further acceptance of nursing theory and
its incorporation in the nursing curricula;
publication of several nursing journals
• 1990s Nursing as a basic science, an applied
science, or a practical science

9. Issues in Nursing Philosophy and
Science Development
• Progress in the Discipline of Nursing (Meleis)
– Practice
– Education and Administration
– Research
– Development of Nursing Theory
• Peplau developed the first theory of nursing practice in
her book, Interpersonal Relations in Nursing (1952)
• Journal of Nursing Research (1952)
• 1960s and 1970s – analysis and debate on he
metatheoretical issues related to theory development

10. Issues in Nursing Philosophy and
Science Development
• Postpositivism focuses on discovering the patterns that
may describe a phenomena.
• Interpretive paradigm tends to promote understanding
by addressing the meanings the participants social
interaction that emphasize situation, context and
multiple cognitive constructions that individuals create
on everyday events.
• Critical paradigm for knowledge development in
nursing , provides framework for inquiring about the
interaction between the social, political, economic,
gender and cultural factors and experiences of health
and illness.