Practical Discourse Revisited: Hermeneutics at the Intersection of Philosophy and Nursing

摘要

Three early papers by Janice ThompsonPractical Discourse, Critical Scholarship, and Hermeneutic Inquiryare examined in reference to the historical context of the time (1985-1990), and implications for current scholarship. Hermeneutic philosophy has been neglected in recent years, overshadowed by its weaker cousin phenomenology. I argue that renewed attention to hermeneutics would help us focus on the situatedness of nursing scholars, the class politics of academia, and a better balance in interpretative work between faith and suspicion. Critical hermeneutics also offers a more robust understanding of praxis and phronesis, and links to pragmatism and social studies of science.