ABSTRACT
What is the relationship between nursing and philosophy such that the philosophy of nursing, or a nursing philosophy, could emerge as a field of inquiry? Or to put the question another way, what is the value of philosophy to nursing clinicians, scholars, leaders, and educators? And what is the value of nursing to academic philosophers? One common answer to these questions is that nursing philosophy is foundational to nursing. In this chapter, Mark Risjord argues that while the idea that nursing philosophy is foundational to nursing practice and scholarship is attractive, it is deeply flawed. Instead, it is recommended that the foundational picture be replaced by a picture wherein the philosophy of nursing is an interdisciplinary inquiry, distinct from, but related to, both pure philosophy and nursing. On the interdisciplinary picture, nursing philosophy does not ask second-order questions; it asks conceptual questions arising as part of nursing practice and scholarship. Its contribution is not to derive answers from pure philosophy, but to communicate a kind of translation that enables nurse philosophers to directly engage the conceptual challenges of nursing.
