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

dependence in our final years. This characterisation of our journey through dependency
on others for protection from harm is merely illustrative. For each of us will experience
the journey in an individual and subjective way. The threats to our survival and
flourishing will be different in detail from those of our contemporaries as well as from
those of our elders and our successors. And our responses to those threats will be
individual insofar as we are all unique.

In addition, and despite our quest to be autonomous and independent, it is apparent that
any individual is limited in her or his scope to reduce her or his vulnerability, and even
this is dependent upon the social and political environment in which the individual is
living. Ultimately, our efforts to minimise our vulnerability are dependent upon the
general good will of others, in both formal and informal ways. Under normal
circumstances, we trust others not to take advantage of our vulnerabilities. It has already
been suggested that we are especially vulnerable as infants. Other times when we might
be said to be particularly vulnerable include: during sleep, when we are distracted,
following some intense physical exertion, and when we find ourselves with a degree of
physical incapacity. While it is true to say that at such times we are more vulnerable
than when we are awake, when we are not distracted, when we are not exhausted, and
when we are physically fit respectively, it remains the case that the examples describe
parts of our ordinary everyday vulnerability.

This ordinary vulnerability is, in part, a function of the uncertainty with which we live
and this uncertainty poses risks to our continued survival and to our possibilities for
flourishing. We cannot be certain that those things on which we depend will be there for
us tomorrow.

Nevertheless, we tend to assume that if we go about our everyday business following
the normal social conventions and rules then we will end the day relatively unscathed.
But there is no certainty about this and, as the Stoics remind us, if we come to rely on
the idea that all will go well for us (that is, that we are in some sense invulnerable) then
our expectations will not only expose us to disappointments but will also leave us ill-
prepared to deal with the harms that befall us. Hence to ignore our inherent
vulnerability is ultimately counterproductive as it makes us more rather than less
vulnerable; or rather it renders us susceptible to fears about the possibility of losing
those things that we most value. And if we value the wrong things (that is, those things

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