A Heideggerian phenomenologic perspective on the concept of the person

Nursing research has been the focus of intense debates on epistemological questions in recent years. This author contends that these methodologic debates have at their base the problem of differing conceptions of the person. In this paper, a Heideggerian phenomenological view of the person will be presented and contrasted with the Cartesian view of person implicit in current empirical research strategies. Methodologic implications of the phenomenological view will then be outlined in a discussion of interpretive research methods, or hermeneutics.