Abstract

Nursing has long needed a philosophy of nursing in order to define itself and articulate its needs and concerns. The language of this dissertation is meant to appeal to practicing nurses and philosophers as well. ;Using the philosophical lens of universality and singularity in combination with nursing practice, which I illustrate by means of a narrative, I illuminate the nature of nursing itself. This illumination provides the conceptual underpinnings for a holistic view of nursing and of persons. This holistic philosophy sublates a number of dualisms which have bothered nursing. These include dualisms between qualitative and quantitative approaches, intuitive and empirical modes of knowledge, the uniqueness of persons and the generality of the universals of science, caring and curing. I overcome the Cartesian split between mind and body, experience and physical reality, by showing the impossibility of the notion of the body as a machine of independent parts causally determined. I replace the Cartesian view with the Whiteheadian view that a person is a community of experiencing entities with significant freedom at all levels. ;Then starting with Jean Watson's theory of caring, I explore and illuminate the nature and ground of caring. I discover that caring in nursing is a holographic interrelatedness of two separate yet interpenetrating aspects which I call the skills of caring and the sentiments of caring. I create a theory on the origin of caring using insights developed by means of imaginary conversations with philosophers from Plato to Whitehead. The result is an understanding of the transcendent and everlasting nature of caring. Clarification of Watson's theory of caring bridges nursing research and practice. In addition I argue that the idea of caring has its place alongside the Form of the Good in Plato's transcendent world of Forms. And further, as a universal, caring is part of the primordial nature of God. ;While universals are repeatable or shareable, individuals are genuinely unique. I discover seven grounds of singularity from space and time to the freedom manifest in the actions of persons, actions which are distinguished from conduct and behavior, and are incompatible with causal determinism