Meta-theory
Meta-theory, the most abstract and universal of the 4 levels of theoretical thinking, addresses issues related to the conduct of inquiry. Therefore, it is the theory of inquiry. Meta-theory or philosophic inquiry uses logic and analytic reasoning to examine the direction, methods, and standards of inquiry and thus it differs from the other levels of theory as its product is primarily knowledge-about-knowledge (second-order knowledge), rather than specific theoretical frameworks that explain the empirical world (first-order knowledge). Meta-theoretical inquiry related to scientific issues is known as philosophy of science, and it focuses on a critical examination of science, its processes, and products. Used by both scientists and practitioners, meta-theoretical inquiry also addresses questions that science cannot answer. For example, in the study of death and dying, scientific inquiry seeks to answer questions about the physiologic changes leading to death. However, philosophic inquiry is needed to address the question, “Is death best understood as a process or a product?” Therefore, an understanding of meta-theoretical thinking is central to both the research and practice of nursing.
As the most well established of the 4 levels, the significance and role of meta-theoretical knowledge in nursing is revealed through a partial list of issues addressed through this mode of inquiry: (1) clarification of the relationship between nursing science and practice, (2) definition, development, and testing of nursing theory, (3) establishment of the academic discipline of nursing, and (4) examination and interpretation of fundamental philosophic perspectives and their connection to nursing science. The long list of exemplary scholarship that represents these 4 categories of philosophic inquiry in nursing is well represented in anthologies such as the one by Nicoll,6 but one example also illustrates the value of the discipline's meta-theoretical thinking. In 1978 when Carper7 published her influential article on the fundamental patterns of knowing in nursing, she initiated a spirited dialogue that continues to this day—in print, classrooms, and practice arenas throughout the world.