Module Components

• Overview
• Assignment

Topics

• Modern and Postmodern Thought

NDNP 804 - Theory for Evidence-Based Practice

Module 3: Modern and Postmodern Thought

Modern and Postmodern Thought

Philosophical Approaches

• Logical Positivism / Modern Empiricism
• Postmodernism
• Metaphysics
• Pragmatism
• Phenomenology
• Hermeneutics
• Critical Social Theory
• Feminism
• Constructivism

How you look for truth (evidence) depends upon your philosophy of science!

The late great philosophical debate: A Tale of Two Philosophies

The predominant influence on medical science has been the philosophy of positivism, or logical positivism. Positivism emerged out of the modernist era. A defining feature of modernism was the belief that the world follows systematic, orderly and predictable laws. Logical positivism is an epistemology (way of knowing) associated with the scientific method, and is the basis for much of medical science. Positivists consider experimental verification (or objective sensory observations rather than personal experience) as the primary way to acquire knowledge. Nursing science began its quest to become legitimate by adopting positivism as a basis for research, theory development and practice.

Later, many nurse theorists moved toward a postmodern approach. Postmodernism represents a movement away from modernism’s dependence on rationalism. A postmodern approach tends to substitute relativism for rationalism. Relativism holds that that truth is not set by outside reality, but is decided by individuals or groups for themselves. Truth is not discovered but created. A hallmark of postmodernism’s impact on nursing is the primacy of holistic therapies, which often tend to be wellness-centered rather than disease-centered.

The epistemology associated with different philosophies of science are somewhat congruent with the methodologies that are acceptable in collecting the evidence that forms the basis for research, theory and practice. Logical positivism as a modernist approach has been associated with “hard science” and is generally dependent upon quantitative methods of data collection and analysis. Whereas, the postmodernistic approaches are often linked to qualitative methods (“soft science”), including interpretive (e.g., phenomenology, ground theory, and hermeneutic inquiry) and critical approaches.

	Received View(Positivism)	Perceived View(Postmodernism)
Ontology	Humans are reducible	Humans are irreducible
	Single objective reality	Multiple realities
	Science if value free	Science is value laden
Epistemology	Objectivity	Subjectivity
	Generalization	Individuation
	Validation / Replication	Trends & patterns
	Prediction / Control	Understanding
	Quantitative	Qualitative
	Correlational / Explanatory Theory-testing research	Descriptive Theory-generating research
Logic	Deductive - from general to specific	Inductive - from specific to general