The Participant Philosophy in Nursing Science

Abstract

The central thesis of this article is that scientific rigor is necessary but not sufkient to address the broad human issues that challenge the nursing profssion. The pursuit of scientific rigor has led nurse researchers away from personal engagement in the issues they wish to study. Clinical scholarship demands active engagement in the practice arena. Three modes of knowledge acquisition-quantitative, qualitative, and personal-are identified and discussed in the context of Pirsig's (1974) "participant philosophy. " A structure explaining the relationships between each of the major modes of knowledge acquisition is presented.

Family Study and Nursing Research

“…Expansion needs to occur not only within nursing but also beyond our disciplinary borders. There is a growing recognition among nurse researchers of the importance of multiple theoretical perspectives and pluralistic methodologies in building our knowledge base (Bargagliotti, 1983;Goodwin & Goodwin, 1984;Silva & Rothbart, 1984;Smith, 1984;Tilden & Tilden, 1985), and family nurse scientists have much to gain from the experience of others working on similar questions from different viewpoints.…”

In the name of Husserl: nursing in pursuit of the things‐in‐themselves

“…In agreement, Beck (1994b, 500) declares that ‘[t]he use of self as a data collection instrument’ in phenomenology is similar to the nurse’s ‘therapeutic use of self’. Her view resonates with the belief that phenomenology entails personal knowledge (Tilden and Tilden 1985) obtained by personal engagement in nursing practice (Taylor 1993).…”

“…Since the heart of phenomenological theory and methodology focuses on the problem of intersubjectivity (Anderson 1989), rather than either subjects or objects (Munhall and Oiler 1986), phenomenology affords insights into the nurse–patient ‘I‐Thou encounter’ (Pallikkathayil and Morgan 1991) to discover ways of caring (Theobald 1997). Thus, not only is phenomenological philosophy congruent with nursing philosophy (Rose et al 1995), but clinical nursing skills coextend with the phenomenologist’s skills to ‘study actors in the field’ (Tilden and Tilden 1985, 3–4). In summary, phenomenology has the potential to reveal ‘humanistic and nursing‐humanistic values in relation to nursing phenomena’ (Ray 1985, 85).…”

“…Such views are reinforced by claims that other disciplines may fail to address ‘phenomena unique to the nursing world’ (Oiler 1986, p. 79). Only nursing phenomenological research can study nursing phenomena (Lynch‐Sauer 1985) which, after all, occurs in the real world of practice (Tilden and Tilden 1985). The problem with these views is that rather than grounding nursing inquiry in phenomenological methodology, they invariably betray its tenets.…”

Child Psychiatric Nursing and the Family

“…Brown, Tanner, and Padrick (1984) concluded that this need is the result of a shift from the goal of description to that of explanation in nursing research. Others stated that the need for more sophisticated and pluralistic methods is due to changing philosophical trends both in science and nursing (Tilden & Tilden, 1985;Allen, 1985;Leininger, 1985;Silva & Rothbart, 1984;Sarter, 1987;Thompson, 1983Thompson, , 1985Thompson, , 1987. Still others stated that the need for more sophisticated methods of inquiry is related to the progress nursing is making in its development as a discipline.…”