Practical Discourse Revisited: Hermeneutics at the Intersection of Philosophy and Nursing

Three early papers by Janice Thompson-Practical Discourse, Critical Scholarship, and Hermeneutic Inquiry-are examined in reference to the historical context of the time (1985-1990), and implications for current scholarship. Hermeneutic philosophy has been neglected in recent years, overshadowed by its weaker cousin phenomenology. I argue that renewed attention to hermeneutics would help us focus on the "situatedness" of nursing scholars, the class politics of academia, and a better balance in interpretative work between faith and suspicion. Critical hermeneutics also offers a more robust understanding of praxis and phronesis, and links to pragmatism and social studies of science.