The Strange Afterlife of Logical Positivism: Nursing Research and Ghosts From the Past

Corry, Porter, and McKenna recently argued that logical positivism is a dead 'research paradigm' and should be stricken from the textbooks. Though I wholeheartedly support moving beyond logical positivism, I think its demise has been greatly exaggerated. This essay traces the continued influence of logical positivism on the nursing discipline. It also examines how far-ranging the revisions would have to be if positivism is truly rejected from the nursing science. Section I argues that Corry et al.'s critique of positivism reiterates core positivist presuppositions. Sections II and III argue that positivist presuppositions about theories and operations still govern much nursing research. Section IV briefly discusses the role of values in the nursing science and argues that the positivists had an important point. This essay aims to clarify how deeply embedded positivism is in the nursing discipline, for it is only when we know how deep the infected tissue is that we can hope to excise it.