ABSTRACT
Concept analysis, as understood in the nursing literature, originates with a book by Walker and Avant, published in 1983, and is based on an interpretation of analytic philosophy as it was in the 1960s. Since then, analytic philosophy has moved on. The old approach is still recognisable, but there is now much greater diversity. For example, we have seen a revival of metaphysics, renewed interest in Carnap and Wittgenstein, the emergence of inferentialism and modern forms of expressivism, the signs of a partial convergence with linguistics, new ideas in the philosophy of language, innovations in experimental philosophy, and a turn to conceptual revision instead of concept description.
If concept analysis in nursing is to be derived from a reading of Anglophone philosophy, there are more possibilities now than there were in the 1960s. In this chapter, I describe four: conceptual analysis, as it is practised by philosophers; concept analysis in nursing, which adopts very different methods; ordinary language philosophy, drawing on Wittgenstein and Austin; and conceptual amelioration. All of these options are derived from different understandings of what philosophy tries to achieve and how it tries to achieve it.
