ABSTRACT
This is the first edition of the Routledge Handbook of Philosophy and Nursing, and readers should find much to attract, intrigue, and interest them within these 47 chapters, the work of 67 scholars. Interestingly, agreement is absent regarding almost every aspect of philosophy, and hence, in this book, a spectrum of styles and positions are embraced. Moreover, chapter writers come from a range of disciplines and physical locations/geographies (variations in sentence construction/grammar hint at these differences). The overwhelming majority of contributors are, as might be expected, nurse scholars, and pleasingly, many of today’s most thought-provoking and inspiring nurse writers agreed to participate in the work. These contributions provide a philosophically orientated snapshot of current interests and perceived problems confronting nursing, and where explored chapter themes and questions overlap, argumentative conflict as well as consensus is discernible. In addition, the work includes non-nurse philosophers/scholars interested in nursing-healthcare, and non-nurse philosophers/scholars whose work matches nursing concerns but is not specifically or always about nursing-healthcare. This breadth of input is important. Including non-nurses alongside nurse scholars helps mitigate against insularity and parochialism, and this practice enriches the offering presented. Readers will be challenged by the work. However, hopefully, they will also enjoy it.
