2007 The author.

Journal compilation 2007 Blackwell Publishing Ltd

Nursing Philosophy

,

8

, pp. 12

1

Blackwell Publishing LtdOxford, UKNUPNursing Philosophy1466-7681Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2006

20078112

Editorial

Editorial

Editorial

Our community as a discursive achievement

Human communities . . . are discursive achievements, pro-
cesses of seeking and nding conversational partners and
forging with them, painfully and by increments, the shared
public institutions that will work for us. We are what we
make of ourselves. (Kingwell, 2000, p. 22)

This issue marks the commencement of my second
year as Co-Editor of

Nursing Philosophy

. I would like
to thank Dr Joan Liaschenko, former Co-Editor, for
graciously remaining available to help me nd my
feet in my editorial work for the journal.
In my inaugural

Editorial

contribution in April of
last year (Volume 7, Number 2), I expressed how
much I appreciated the methodological acuity and
substantive insights of the papers in

Nursing Philos-
ophy

. My experiences throughout my rst year as Co-
Editor have deepened that appreciation. The depth
and scope of the manuscripts we receive for this jour-
nal are tremendous, and are reected in the quality
of papers we are able to publish. For example, in
this issue Dr Clinton Betts challenges us to re-visit
our assumptions about an inuential, yet poorly
understood, philosopher in

The Will To Health: A
Nietzschean Critique

.
I also expressed in my inaugural

Editorial

contri-
bution how much I appreciated the opportunities for
international community building that the journal
and its afliated

International Philosophy of Nursing
Society

(IPONS) provide for those of us passionate
about nursing and philosophy. This appreciation has
also deepened. In early September of 2006, Professor
Anne Scott and colleagues at Dublin City University,
in association with IPONS, hosted the 10th Interna-
tional Philosophy of Nursing Conference:

Perception,
Judgement & Decision-Making in Nursing Practice

.
The conference was a great success, and brought
together nurses, philosophers, and others from a wide
range of countries including (but not limited to)

1

24 September 2007: Westpark Conference Centre, 319 Perth
Road, Dundee, Scotland, UK. Updates will be on the IPONS
website at http://www.ipons.dundee.ac.uk. Questions or queries
can be sent to Professor Drummond at j.s.drummond@
dundee.ac.uk. Information about the Westpark Conference
Centre can be found at http://www.westparkcentre.com.

Canada, England, Ireland, Norway, Scotland, the
United States, and Wales. This coming September,
Professor John Drummond and colleagues from
Dundee, also in association with IPONS, will host the
11th International Philosophy of Nursing Confer-
ence:

Identity and Difference in Health and Health-
care

.

1

This forthcoming conference will contribute to
a growing array of thought- and discussion-provoking
events. As Professor Drummond and colleagues
explain in the promotional materials for their confer-
ence, they have chosen their theme so as to embrace
interactive issues of ontology, epistemology, ethics,
and aesthetics. And they are calling us to extend our
philosophical reach to consideration of culture, poli-
tics, economy, and policy.
I think that the call to extend our philosophical
reach for the 11th International Philosophy of
Nursing Conference is well timed. In meeting my
colleagues from various western countries at
International Philosophy of Nursing Conferences
over the past few years, I have been consistently
struck by how similar our political and economic chal-
lenges are, how complicated the culture of western
health care is, and how pressing the need is for pro-
active policy responses. The Canadian philosopher
Mark Kingwell (2000) claims in the quotation I have
cited above that human communities are discursive
achievements. I agree. And, following his line of
thought, I believe that through the conversational
partners we encounter at the forthcoming conference

E
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Editorial

2007 The author. Journal compilation 2007 Blackwell Publishing Ltd

Nursing Philosophy

,

8

, pp. 12

and in the papers published in this journal, we will
continue to be well placed to reect on and ulti-
mately inuence our public institutions for the good
of health and health care.
Patricia (Paddy) Rodney

Reference

Kingwell M. (2000)

The World We Want: Virtue, Vice, and the
Good Citizen

. Penguin Books, Toronto, ON.