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A fuzzy week for Nurse Der
Author(s) -
Rolfe Gary
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
journal of advanced nursing
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.948
H-Index - 155
eISSN - 1365-2648
pISSN - 0309-2402
DOI - 10.1046/j.1365-2648.1999.00887.x
Subject(s) - cave , assertion , mistake , psychology , argument (complex analysis) , reading (process) , nursing , philosophy , medicine , history , computer science , linguistics , law , archaeology , political science , programming language
A recent paper in this journal by the philosopher Peter Cave (1998) attempted a close textual reading (what one critic has called `textual harassment') of my paper `Science, abduction and the fuzzy nurse: an exploration of expertise' (Rolfe 1997). The resulting analysis highlighted what Cave referred to variously in his abstract as mistakes, misconceptions and misleadings, and he concluded with the hope that his own paper might show `how some accuracy may be well leading' (Cave 1998 p. 274). No doubt mindful of the great philosopher who claimed that the proof of the pudding is in the eating, Cave attempted to demonstrate the dire nursing consequences of my mistakes, misconceptions and misleadings if adopted by Staff Nurse Rea Der, `a careful but gullible reader of Rolfe' (Cave 1998 p. 274). Cave went on to explain that `The study covers just ®ve days, and Rea makes a mistake each day because of Rol®an predilections'. I intend to demonstrate in this reply to Cave that the mistakes made by the aptly named Nurse Der are not the result of her `Rol®an predilections', but of some basic logical errors made by Cave himself. I will begin by revisiting Nurse Der's rather stressful week and suggest some alternative reasons for her mistakes.