Philosophical Perspectives on Trustworthiness and Open-mindedness as Professional Virtues for the Practice of Nursing: Implications for he Moral Education of Nurses

reasoned argument; will be unprepared to review the evidence; and will resist change
because they see no reason why that which they currently believe should not continue to
serve them well. In contrast the credulous individual will be ever ready to adopt the
latest idea without thinking through the evidence or argument on which the proposed
change is based or without considering the implications and/or likely consequences of
the change.

Closed-т indedness

There are numerous historical examples where evidence that we now take to be
compelling was rejected because it did not correspond with the firmly held beliefs of the
day. Theories that have come to be recognised as valid but which contradicted the
received wisdom of the time have often been ridiculed before gaining general
acceptance; their authors subjected to lampooning by both the populace and the
eminent. Examples would include: beliefs about the need to exclude women from
activities that were believed to be the province of men, activities ranging from voting
and medical training to riding bicycles; beliefs about the position of the earth in relation
to the universe; and beliefs about the relationship (or lack thereof) between hygiene and
infection. These are but three examples of what we now take to be false beliefs. While it
may be comforting to note that these examples are from a past in which we imagine
people to have been generally less open-minded than we are now it would be arrogant
indeed to believe that we are immune from such closed-minded thinking. For it is
possible that some of the firmly held general beliefs we hold in our present era will be
similarly derided in a not very distant future. As Williams (2002) points out we cannot
give attention to every crackpot idea that is presented for that would paralyse serious
enquiry. Thus it would seem inevitable that some of the ideas that later come to be
accepted will have been dismissed inappropriately on the way.

Credulousness

However, there are many who remain ready and willing to support unusual or
unorthodox ideas regardless of how fantastic or weird they may appear; indeed, there
are those who seem intent on championing seriously wacky ideas as a matter of
principle. Such persons are often guilty of credulousness although there may yet be a
fine line between the credulous and the visionary. For, as implied in the previous
paragraph, it is true that some of the ideas and beliefs we currently cherish will have
appeared as just plain crazy to our predecessors. Nevertheless, it is generally the case

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