Zen & the art of

nursing

A sketch to the contours of a

complexified enactivist view on
ethics education
Theo Niessen, Fontys University of Applied
Sciences (Nursing) & Maastricht University
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(HES), The Netherlands
 Robert M. Pirsig
• Zen : non-intellectualizing, non-
conceptualizing direct viewing of the
universe.
• Art of motorcycle maintenance: Pirsig
demonstrates that motorcycle
maintenance may be dull and tedious or
an enjoyable and pleasurable pastime; it
all depends on the inner attitude, or lack
thereof.
• 2 types of people: romanticist (being in
the moment - Sutherlands) & the 2
What is complexity theory /
enactivism?
Worldviews
incorporates
notions:
• Interconnectedness
• Self-organization
• Emergence
• Co-constitution / co-
evolution

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Complicatedness &
Complexity
• Mechanical • Organic worldview
worldview • Dynamic &
• Discrete, inert adaptive agents
elements (element)
• Patterns of
• Predictability oppertunity
• Determination / • Self – organizing
causation

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Complicatednes
s

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Complexity

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 Ethics
• Ethics: Ethics is a major branch of
philosophy, encompassing right conduct
and good life.
• Within nursing it is thinking about and
delivering good care! But what is good
care?

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 “But what is good care
given…
• … a complexified worldview that supports
notions (perhaps even values) as:
• “Interconnectedness”
• “Inter-being”
• “Mutuality”
• … my experience as an ethics teacher an
ethicist at a home for elderly people, that
there is often no naturally felt
interconnectedness because of an
autonomy based society
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 Questions
• How to activate a sense of inter-
being and raising consciousness to
the dense and herefore ambiguous
nature of reality?
• How to activate an attitude that is
receptacle to minute yet possible
important changes (butterfly effect)?
• How to embody and enact this
ontological view?
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Artistry

Different types of
knowledge 10
Story telling

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Meditation

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Zen at the heart of
nursing

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Thank you for your
attention!
t.niessen@fontys.nl

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