title: Natural science and nursing science: where do the horizons fuse?
abstract: The natural sciences have an influential effect on society, contemporary world-views, and other scientific disciplines. A brief history of the major advances in the natural sciences and the associated philosophies provides a platform for scholarly discourse regarding the subsequent influence on nursing epistemology. The concepts of knowledge and understanding are differentiated and a cautionary word is expressed not to cast aside the natural sciences and their corollary philosophies as nursing embarks upon its epistemological journey into the 21st century. Aesthetics is presented as a possible fusion of horizons of nursing and natural science.
authors.affiliation: Boston College, Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, USA.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Whittemore
mesh_terms: D003405:Creativity; D004954:Esthetics; D006676:History of Nursing; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006801:Humans; D009729:Nursing / Q000639:trends; D010687:Philosophy, Nursing / Q000266:history; D012586:Science / Q000266:history*