Page 41 - Nursing: The Philosophy and Science of Caring

NU RSING: THE PHILO S OPHY A ND SCIENCE OF C A R I N G , revI s e d ed I t I o n
• The practice of Caring is central to nursing. Its social, moral,
and scientific contributions lie in its professional commitment to
the values, ethics, and ideals of Caring Science in theory, prac-
tice, and research.

PREmISES OF CARING SCIENCE
(ADAPTED FROm wATSON 2005:218–219)
• Knowledge of Caring cannot be assumed; it is an epistemic-
ethical-theoretical endeavor that requires ongoing explication
and development.
• Caring Science is grounded in a relational, ethical ontology of
unity within the universe that informs the epistemology, method-
ology, pedagogy, and praxis of caring in nursing and related fields.
• Caring Science embraces epistemological pluralism, seeking to
understand the intersection and underdeveloped connections
between the arts and humanities and the clinical sciences.
• Caring Science embraces all ways of knowing/being/doing: eth-
ical, intuitive, personal, empirical, aesthetic, and even spiritual/
metaphysical ways of knowing and Being.
• Caring Science inquiry encompasses methodological pluralism,
whereby the method flows from the phenomenon of concern—
diverse forms of inquiry seek to unify ontological, philosophical,
ethical, and theoretical views while incorporating empirics and
technology.
• Caring (and nursing) has existed in every society. Every society
has had some people who have cared for others. A caring atti-
tude is not transmitted from generation to generation by genes.
It is transmitted by the culture of a society. The culture of nurs-
ing, in this instance the discipline and profession of nursing, has
a vital social-scientific role in advancing, sustaining, and preserv-
ing human caring as a way of fulfilling its mission to society and
broader humanity.

wORkING DEFINITION OF CARING SCIENCE (ExTRACTED/mODIFIED
FROm wATSON 2004A; wATSON AND SmITH 2002)
Caring Science is an evolving philosophical-ethical-epistemic field of
study, grounded in the discipline of nursing and informed by related

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