Perry P A
College of Nursing, Arizona State University, Tempe.
West J Nurs Res. 1994 Oct;16(5):480-94. doi: 10.1177/019394599401600503.
Feminist empiricism may provide a valuable approach for the acquisition, evaluation, and integration of biological knowledge in nursing epistemologies. This article discusses feminist empiricism as a method for inquiry in nursing. Proponents of feminist empiricism strive to work within the current political, social, and scientific structures while acknowledging that all three of these structures must change if less distorted epistemologies are to emerge. Hypertension in women is used to illustrate how feminist empiricism could be used to modify the traditional scientific approach. The argument is made that the androcentricism of the traditional scientific approach must be changed in order to include the problematics of women. Moreover, women must have a central role in determining the problematics of both health and illness in women. A philosophical stance embracing holism cannot deny biological phenomena or preclude research on these phenomena. Theorists and scientists in nursing have a unique opportunity to reconceptualize biological phenomena, from a holistic perspective, in the development of epistemologies for nursing. An argument for the use of basic research as a quantitative methodology, from a feminist perspective, is made. The appropriateness, for nursing, of basic research methodologies to generate knowledge about biological processes, which are within nursing's scientific domain, are discussed.
女性主义经验主义可能为护理认识论中生物学知识的获取、评估和整合提供一种有价值的方法。本文将女性主义经验主义作为护理研究的一种方法进行讨论。女性主义经验主义的支持者力求在当前的政治、社会和科学结构内开展工作，同时承认如果要出现较少扭曲的认识论，这三种结构都必须改变。以女性高血压为例，说明女性主义经验主义如何可用于修正传统科学方法。文章认为，必须改变传统科学方法的男性中心主义，以便纳入女性的问题。此外，女性在确定女性健康和疾病问题方面必须发挥核心作用。秉持整体论的哲学立场不能否认生物学现象，也不能排除对这些现象的研究。护理领域的理论家与科学家在从整体视角为护理发展认识论的过程中，拥有重新概念化生物学现象的独特机会。本文从女性主义视角论证了将基础研究用作定量方法的合理性。还讨论了基础研究方法对于护理而言在生成有关生物学过程（这些过程属于护理科学领域）的知识方面的适用性。
