The discipline of nursing has experienced the movement from modernism to postmodernism through expressions ranging from dualistic and polarized discourse to contradicting pluralistic positions. For the purpose of this paper, these responses are described as ways of knowing and are examined for their impact on the evolution of the nursing discipline. Reciprocal interdependence is offered as an alternate way of knowing capable of incorporating differing world views into a coherent and comprehensive systemic whole. The reflexive and potentially transformational impact of (...) reciprocal interdependence on the advancement of nursing knowledge is reviewed through a discussion of the value of polarity, as well as the contribution of complementary and dialectical perspectives to the maintenance of interactions between the whole and its constituents. (shrink)

The paper considers Ernst' Cassirer's standpoint with reference to Euclidean geometry and the complementarity principle of quantum theory, interpreted as a choice between a causal description and a space — time description. The acceptance of the complementarity principle by Cassirer not only lands him off the Kantian path slightly, but it also leads him to some contradictions and incompatibilities within his own system of thought. 1. Accepting complementarity, Cassirer cannot still hold that there is an infinite hierarchy of objective levels (...) as he does towards the end of hisDeterminismus; and 2. accepting complementarity, Cassirer cannot still hold on to the observability principle of Leibniz. (shrink)

The relation between religious and scientific explanations of events and states of affairs has been the subject of much debate. For example, are the statements ‘John's life was saved by surgery’ ‘John's life was saved in answer to prayer’ in competition with each other and, if so, in what way? They do not seem to be rival causal explanations, nor are they straightforwardly contradictory. Yet each seems to cast doubt on the other, or at least to make it to some (...) extent redundant. (shrink)