Page 42 - Nursing: The Philosophy and Science of Caring

NURSING: THE PHIL O S OPHY A ND SCIENCE OF C A R IN G , revI s e d ed I t I o n
fields. Caring is considered as one central feature within the meta-
paradigm of nursing knowledge and practice. Caring Science is informed
by an ethical-moral-spiritual stance that encompasses a humanitarian,
human science orientation to human caring processes, phenomena,
and experiences. It is located within a worldview that is non-dualistic,
relational, and unified, wherein there is a connectedness to All: the
universal field of Infinity: Cosmic love. This worldview is sometimes
referred to as

• A unitary transformative paradigm (Newman, Sime, and
Corcoran-Perry 1991; Watson 1999)
• Nonlocal consciousness (Dossey 1991)
• Era III medicine/nursing (Dossey 1991, 1993; Watson 1999).

Caring Science within this worldview intersects with the arts and
humanities and related fields of study and practice.

CARING: SCIENCE-ARTS-HUmANITIES
To understand nursing as a discipline and a distinct field of study is to
honor it within a context of art, the humanities, and expanding views
of science. As a distinct discipline, it is necessary to acknowledge that
nursing and Caring reside within a humanitarian as well as a scientific
matrix; thus, there is an intersection among the arts, humanities, phi-
losophy, science, and technology. The discipline encompasses a broad
worldview that honors evolving humanity and an evolving universe
that is full of wonder and unknowns as well as known set expectations
about our world.
Just as the profession may detour at times from its disciplinary
heritage, so too we often forget that an equal need exists for humanis-
tic-aesthetic views of a similar phenomenon. Humanities and the arts
seek to answer different questions than science does. It continues to
be important to understand the essential characteristics they all bring
and the ways in which they are similar and different and in which they
also converge.
For example, conventional science is concerned with order, pre-
diction, control, methods, generalizations, detachment, objectivity,
and so forth. The three classical assumptions that have shaped modern

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