Answering philosophical questions facing contemporary nursing practice.

The purpose of the article is to point out the relevance of asking and answering philosophical questions in nursing. The author characterizes philosophical questions as higher order questions that cannot be answered by empirical observations alone. Questions about the nature of nursing reality, about the nature of nursing knowledge, and about the validity of ethical principles are mentioned as examples of such questions. The means for dealing with philosophical questions in nursing range from formal, logical analysis to philosophical poems.