Essay Sample on Philosophical Foundations in Nursing: Bridging Traditions and Modern Science

Concerning philosophy, many traditions have been held onto throughout the scientific revolution. These traditions have been integrated into the nursing practice despite the development of modern science. In nursing philosophy, the traditions in science have been explained, and their effects on nursing practice, which is a science. Science philosophy is an important element in nursing practice as nurses can think more critically and reflect on how their values influence their practice besides their way of being. Therefore, nurses embody philosophy in their actions in enacting their knowledge, ethics, and whole being while caring for others.

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Before the nineteenth century their definition of science and when science came into being, explained that the universe is composed of water, others argued it is composed of air. Their arguments reflect that the universe was once in time made up of a single particle, an atom. Modern science begins from the Scientific Revolution period that was between the 16th century and the 19th century. Before then, the present science was known as natural philosophy and much of what we presently view as science did not exist. During the Enlightenment period, major cultural changes occurred, leading to a more philosophical view of man whereby man sheds his old ways of thinking. In this period, rationality, empirical observation, personal autonomy, and judgment in knowledge claims were advocated by man. Science was more productive during this period; therefore, the scientific revolution is important in understanding modern science's nature and development. In modern science, religion became a vital element in studying the universe due to the communion with God's creation and the chance to get closer to God.

In science, mathematization, presently known as instrumentalism of nature, replaced natural philosophy's metaphysics. In the Scientific Revolution, mathematical analysis revealed deeper truths about the world like planets comprised of ellipses and not circles as it had been established earlier by physicists. Besides, given the perception of nature, mathematics would improve politics, morals, literary criticism, and public speaking. Also, according to the philosophy of science, science was seen as amassing knowledge about the world and progressed toward truth by conjecture and refutation. However, some scientists see an instrumental progression of science in gaining precision scope, and puzzle-solving ability rather than progression towards some truth concerning the world as it surely is. Therefore, the philosophy of science should be rooted in and responsible for its history.

Moreover, another characteristic of the Scientific Revolution is experimentation that replaced the self-evident experience based on natural philosophy. Experimentation emphasized measurement and quantification, unlike the previous approach that encouraged quality. Magic and alchemy significantly influenced the development of experimentation as they depended on nature. Presently, modern phenomena are explained concerning mathematical elements of mechanics; events are explained in physical causes. Mechanical philosophy is mainly attributed to the active particles of matter. All science knowledge consisted of generalizations from experience that could be reduced to phenomena or theoretical language that was testable. In the process of experimentation, a distinction is made between the context of discovery and the context of justification to establish a theory. Science philosophy concentrated only on the characteristics of science and viewed history and development as unimportant. Besides, religion, culture, and politics played an important role in the Scientific Revolution, leading to modern scientific development.

The dynamic of scientific growth involves the traditions of the scientific communities: their beliefs, practices, commitments, and the individuals themselves. Analysis of scientific growth and revolution must be concerning the fundamental changes in the point of view and the practices of a concrete group of scientists at that given time and reality. Regarding this paradigm, the following elements are embodied. Symbolic generalizations; the community's universal propositions as a natural law of the operating theories is the first element. Models and metaphors with a property of open-mindedness are important in introducing new terms in the vocabulary and acquainting new generations of scientists with the concepts. Besides, they guide paradigm development and stimulate similarity relations.

The lexicon consists of terms that the community uses to describe and a generalization about the world. The terms provide a set of learned expectations about the similarities and differences between objects and situations that make up the community's world. Lexicon involves how things are perceived, categorized, and dealt with in terms of instrumentation how they are related, and how the relationships are formalized into laws. Lexicon is connected to exemplars which are the shared examples that illustrate and direct the work of research, practical solutions to problems, and lab investigations. Also, paradigm involves value commitments to the criteria o theory evaluation, i.e., accuracy, scope, consistency, simplicity, and fruitfulness. These values are articulated and prioritized differently by the different communities and even the different individuals in the communities. The values are shaped by other elements of the paradigm so that when a community sees a particular situation that is articulated in a certain way, as constituting a scientific problem and that a particular way of handling it constitutes a scientifically acceptable solution to it. These paradigms led to the Scientific Revolution.

Normal science that is bound by paradigm is predicated on the assumption that the scientific community knows what the world is like. Its main task is puzzle-solving, carried out with a deep commitment to the paradigm to bring the paradigm closer to nature. Normal science that leads to paradigm achievement is important in science in machining scientific achievements possible.

Therefore, these traditions by different scientific communities guide the current nursing practice. They help nurses in major decision-making concerning patient care and effectively provide nursing care to their patients. The traditions that make up the paradigms are also crucial in nursing research and guide their investigations and experiments that lead to the realization of different nursing care elements. The philosophy of nursing science that is based on truthful actions guides the nurses in their practice.