Nursing values and science: toward a science philosophy.

Several premises are proposed for nursing science philosophy in contrast to nursing practice philosophy. These include human understanding, a critical tradition that views science as public knowledge, and use of observation, rationality, explanation, and prediction as a guide to therapy. No argument is made for or against a particular philosophy of science (e.g., positivist, historicist, critical theorist). The debates on the fit of philosophic paradigms with research strategies may soon run their course on the North American continent, as they appear to have done in Scandinavia.