Includes indexes.

Contents : Introduction -- Theory: who need it..... what is it ? -- On the way to theoretical nursing : stage and milestone -- From can't kant: the fantastic voyage -- Toward the development of the discipline of nursing epistemological issues -- Nursing perceptive -- The domain of nursing knowledge -- Bedpans and spinoza: source,resource,and paradoxes -- Patterns of knowing: the syntax of the discipline -- Hypatia,hatshepsut,and nurses as scholars -- Nursing theory : an elusive mirage or a mirror of reality -- Strategy for concept development -- Strategies for theory development -- A model for evaluation of theories : description,analysis,critique,testing ,and support -- Our pioneer: the theorists and theories -- On human being-environment interaction -- On interactions -- On nursing therapeutics -- Theoretical thinking and practical wisdom challenges for the future -- Our theoretical literature -- Meta-theory and theory bibliography.