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

unusual (that is поп-everyday) circumstances that doubts would even be entertained. By
way of example they suggest that when doing philosophy one might be prepared to be
open-minded about the sorts of things that "... are so basic and fundamental that they
must hold if anything is ever going to count as evidence" (Hare and McLaughlin 1994
p. 242) (original emphasis)

Ui) The moral limit

Hare and McLaughlin are more tentative about the nature and scope of the moral limit
but they do say "There may also be beliefs ... of morality which are so fundamental to
our understanding of what morality is that we cannot make sense of the suggestion that
they may be false" (ibid).

iv) The logical limit

The logical limit is set by the terms in which open-mindedness is understood. Thus it is
not possible to be open-minded about open-mindedness itself because to attempt to be
open-minded about open-mindedness is to demonstrate a commitment to open-
mindedness.

BramalFs critique

It is as this point that Bramall takes issue with the terms within which the debate is
conducted. Bramall claims that to be open-minded and to accept the logical limitation is
to accept and be committed to a liberal rational methodology without being open-
minded about that methodology (or even without recognising the adherence to a
particular methodology). The liberal rational account is, Bramall maintains, a product of
the Enlightenment project that fails to recognise, or is perhaps unable to recognise, its
own perspective as prejudiced. Drawing upon hermeneutic phenomenology Bramall
concludes that:

Our view of the world is ... always constrained by our conceptual horizons. All
understanding is always one interpretation of phenomena that could be
interpreted differently from different categorical and conceptual frameworks.

(Bramall 2000 p. 207)

In arguing for ".. something like a virtue Ofhermeneutic open-mindedness" (ibid p. 209)
he claims that the logical limitation of open-mindedness as conceived in the liberal
rational tradition can be overcome. Hermeneutic open-mindedness allows for"... the

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