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Nursing, art and science: Revisiting the Two Cultures
Author(s) -
Darbyshire Philip
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
international journal of nursing practice
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.62
H-Index - 55
eISSN - 1440-172X
pISSN - 1322-7114
DOI - 10.1046/j.1440-172x.1999.00127.x
Subject(s) - relevance (law) , the arts , history of nursing , nursing science , focus (optics) , sociology , position (finance) , nursing , history of science , medicine , epistemology , political science , nurse education , philosophy , law , physics , optics , finance , economics
I begin this paper by setting out the importance of the Two Cultures debate, given that many nurse authors would agree with Closs’s position that the art versus science debate should be closed finally. I suggest that issues are every bit as present and urgent in our current era as they were in the past. A brief tracing of the history of the Two Cultures debate highlights the relevance of the central features of the debate for nursing. I then focus on nursing’s current understanding of science and art and attempt to defend science from some of the accusations levelled at it, while also questioning some of the claims made on behalf of the arts. In the latter sections of the paper, I make a case for the development of ‘nursing humanities’ and argue the vital importance of overcoming the Two Cultures divide for the everyday practices of nurses and midwives.