Rationalism And Empiricism

“Philosophies of nursing are statements of beliefs about nursing and expressions of values in nursing that are used as bases for thinking and acting. Most philosophies are built on a foundation of beliefs about people, environment, health, and nursing” (Chitty & Black, p. 298). By using person, environment, health, and nursing as a guideline to achieve the ultimate goals of nursing; I will discuss my personal philosophy and how these factors are used in nursing.

Between the two schools of epistemology, rationalism and empiricism, I am inclined towards the philosophies of rationalism. I am persuaded towards philosophical approaches which are superior at attaining truth. Empiricism relies on observation using the five senses in reasoning to achieve truth. However, in Plato’s Thaetetus, Socrates gives strong arguments for the limitations of human perception. The Canadian legal system, also, recognizes flaws in human observation, which increases my skepticism of empiricism. Conversely, rationalism relies solely on the use of logic and deduction in reasoning. Both, Plato and Socrates stressed the value of rationalism through the ability to know and express combinations of elements through mathematics. Large

Nursing philosophy is defined as a nurse or students thought of what they believe to be true about the nature of the profession of nursing and to provide a base for nursing practice. (2016, para.1) The nursing field continues to develop into a professional scope of practice and nurses continue to work to develop a high standard for the profession. The values and skills that nurses’ learn as they care for patients continue to develop into rules and regulations for future nurses. As a nurse it is important to create the best environment for patients, family members and co-workers. After graduating from high school I obtained my STNA and then began my college career in the health field as a physical therapy major. This past year I transitioned to nursing after seeing how much more I am able to work directly with patients. The reasoning behind my nursing philosophy is that I have gained knowledge and love for the profession through working as a certified nurses aide for the last four years. The love for helping others and the ability to help individuals during their times of need has grown on me and developed into a passion. Through education and work experiences my philosophy will transform overtime. Currently, I believe in a nursing philosophy that states strong principals that encompass empathy, compassion, and respect towards patients and their families. In addition, nurses must stay abreast of developing health care trends, be critical thinkers and

The integration of nursing theories with a philosophical perspective lays the framework for nursing practice (McCurry, Revell & Roy, 2008). My philosophy of nursing is to provide holistic care meeting the physical, social, economic, cognitive, and spiritual health of a person. This philosophy embraces the four elements of the nursing metaparadigm, which is person, environment, health, and nursing. While theorists have differing concepts and definitions of nursing, the American Nurses Association (ANA), defines it as follows; “Nursing is the protection, promotion, and optimization of health and

A personal philosophy is a concept from theories that is instrumental to understanding and practicing nursing as a science and an art. Philosophy’s distinctive contribution comes in the education of nurses and teachers and in the development of nursing theory and research. More importantly, philosophystrongly affects the formulation of personal values which underlines all undertakings of a nurse in the practice of his profession (Meehan, 2012; Kutin 2013).

Personal Nursing Philosophy In order to develop your individual nursing philosophy, you must first understand the definition of philosophy related to the nursing profession. Philosophy is an attitude toward life and reality that evolves from each nurse’s beliefs. (Marriner-Tomey 1994 p. 89)

The next two, rationalism and empiricism are the combination of knowledge via science. Knowledge via rationalism involves logical reasoning. It is the combination of stating precise ideas (often in the form of syllogism), applying logical rules, and making logical conclusions based on the ideas. The problem is when the syllogism’s content or either premises is false. The knowledge is not based on the content, but on the logical manner it is presented. Knowledge via empiricism involves gaining knowledge through objective observation and the experiences of one’s senses: seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling, and touching (collection of facts), and views knowledge, as “I’ll believe when I see it”.

More and more language seemed to be to be an aberration by which we had come to lose the world. Everything that is named is set at one remove from itself. Nomenclature is the very soul of secondhandness"¦. When I began to think that way I began to see the true extent of our alienation. What if there existed a dialogue among the life forms of this earth from which we had excluded ourselves so totally that we no longer even believed it to exist? Could it be that dialog which we still sense in dreams? Or in those rare moments of peace when the world seems in some sense to be revealed to us and to be proper and right? I knew that dreams were prelingual"¦. Language is a way of containing the world. A thing named becomes that named thing. It is under surveillance. We were put into a garden and we turned it into a detention center. Cormac McCarthy, "Whales and Men," (pp. 57-8).

The metaparadigm of nursing refers to the concepts of person, environment, health/illness and nursing (Friberg & Creasia, 2015). The definition of nursing the ANA uses (Bickford, Marion, & Gazaway, 2015), relates to care ideas present in all aspects of nursing regardless of the specific field of nursing. Basic tenets like promoting, protecting and optimizing health and abilities, preventing illness and injury, facilitating healing, alleviating suffering, and being health-care advocates for patients, families, groups, communities and populations, all fall under the concepts in the metaparadigm. A nursing theory describes, predicts of explains the relationships between the concepts defined by the

Rationals are very scarce, only comprising five to ten percent of the population. They consist of people who tend to be pragmatic, skeptical, and self-contained. They have a problem-solving temperament, particularly if the problem deals with a complex system. They will analyze the problem to understand it better so they can improve it. Rationals tend to be strong willed and independent. They do not care about being politically correct and will disregard any authority or procedure that wastes time and resources. Rationals will work tirelessly on any project they set their minds on to quench the insatiable hunger to accomplish their goals. They are skeptical of all ideas, including their own, because they are fiercely independent and rigorously logical. They come across as cold and distant, but they are actually just absorbed in whatever problem has captured their attention.

Florence Nightingale described the discipline of nursing as: “Putting the patient in the best condition for nature to act” (Lewis, Dirksen, Heitkemper, Bucher, & Camera, 2011, p. 3). Since then many conceptual modules and multiple theories have developed to define the discipline of nursing. These modules and theories of nursing represent various paradigms derived from the four metaparadigm concepts of professional nursing: person, environment, health, and nursing (Masters, 2011, p. 48). More specifically, “the person receiving the nursing care, the environment within which the person exists, health-illness continuum with which the person falls at the time of interaction with nurse, and finally the nursing actions themselves” (Masters, 2011, p. 48). These concepts act as a framework and are essential to guide and advance nursing practice, as well as prepare nurses for leadership opportunities where they can advocate for change and do more than delegate and direct.

Answer question 1 in Preston (2001, p. 39). Preston is a required reading. "Why should I be moral...Where do I think my own values come from?" The entry should be no more than 200 words. Do not delete this instruction.

Epistemology is the branch of philosophy that evaluates the acquisition, limitations, and origins of human knowledge. One of the theories found in epistemology is the theory of empiricism. Empiricism is the belief that knowledge is gained through experience, that there is no such thing as “innate knowledge,” or knowledge that one is born with. Empiricism stands in stark contrast to the rationalist theory, the belief that humans possess innate knowledge, and that one can have knowledge, without sensory information or experience, through reason. In this paper I will evaluate the theory of empiricism, comparing it to rationalism and discussing advantages and disadvantages of the empiricists perspective on the acquisition of knowledge, and then I will discuss why I consider empiricism the superior theory of knowledge.

Philosophy can be divided into Metaphysics and epistemology. Metaphysics is concerned with what is to be? While epistemology is concerned with concrete knowledge and with “what is knowledge”? In other words, what can be known, how it came to be known, and the source of knowledge is epistemology. Empiricism and rationalism both deal with the epistemology branch of philosophy. Even more specifically, rationalism and empiricism are concerned with how knowledge is gained.

Both perspectives emphasize that the all knowledge must begin from the empirical, material world. The social world has to be verified in a purely empirical manner by understanding of empiricism and realist ontology.