Heidegger reflects on being (Sein) as not only the most universal concept, but also that which is ownmost – it is the hermeneutic site where “self” arises, persists and passes (as being-towards-death in the temporalisation of Dasein). Yet grounded in the fundamental phenomenon of care (Sorge), Dasein is not simply a self unto oneself but is a being (Seiende) that exists for the sake of others: its existence is thrown (geworfen) into Mitdasein, i.e. the being-with (Mitsein) of more than one Dasein (cf. Peplau on interpersonal relations). Existentially speaking, the cul de sac of solipsism – a self that is trapped within itself with no reference point outside it – is an impossibility. This is the logic of hermeneutic phenomenology.

Nursing, as a systematic, historicised and ever developing framework providing knowledge and practice of care (Pflegewissenschaft in German), thus has hermeneutic phenomenology as its logic. Pflege is a poignant form of Sorge that works directly with both healing and decline, hence life and death, or the enigma of existence tout court.