Dualism
In his critical investigation of geography as a single, unified field of science, Kraft finds that, while one could dismiss the charge of dualism of content--natural and human features--as invalid, the inclusion of the systematic and the regional points of view was an unquestionable form of dualism. He agrees with Hettner, however, that this dualism cannot be expressed simply as the combination of a nomothetic and an idiographic science; systematic geography must include the study of unique cases, and regional geography must use generic concepts and principles. In any case, neither construction of laws nor the description of the unique represents the purpose of geography, or of any other science. The purpose of geography is the same in both branches, the comprehension of the areal differentiation of the earth, and this purpose cannot be solved either by systematic studies alone nor by regional studies alone, but requires both approaches. Consequently, he concludes, this dualism in approach is justified as necessary for the single aim which makes geography a unified science
This view, we may add, is further supported by the fact, stressed by Hettner, that it is frequently difficult to classify particular studies under one heading or the other. The difference is not in the substance, but in the point of view, and in certain kinds of studies these may be combined. For example, the systems of land-use classification previously discussed (Sec. X F, G) are intended to provide backgrounds for agricultural regional geography and they involve, in outline, a major part of the regional study of any area. At the same time, however, they represent systematic studies of particular element-complexes in their world distribution, so that it is by no means clear whether they belong more in the one or the other of our two major divisions.
Finally, if one agrees that both regional and systematic studies are included as essential parts of geography, we may perhaps dismiss any question of relative importance as irrelevant. For systematic geography, regional studies provide, not merely a source of detailed factual information that otherwise would hardly be available, but they also indicate problems of relationships that might easily be overlooked in systematic geography, and they provide the final testing ground for the generic concepts and principles of systematic geography. On the other hand, it is even more obvious that progress in interpretation of the interrelated phenomena of regional geography is constantly dependent on the development of such universals by systematic studies. Any assumption that these studies can be left to the systematic sciences concerned with each particular category of phenomena has been shown by experience to be unwarranted. The aspects of these phenomena with which geography is concerned--their relation to other earth phenomena in different parts of the world--are not of direct concern to those systematic sciences and are more commonly left unstudied, unless geographers study them, as Lehmann has shown. Systematic geography, he therefore concludes, is not to be thought of as a border area of geography, or merely as a propaedeutic, but represents "organs vital to the growth of geography, without which its regional crowning can as little exist as a real tree without its roots"
In his critical investigation of geography as a single, unified field of science, Kraft finds that, while one could dismiss the charge of dualism of content--natural and human features--as invalid, the inclusion of the systematic and the regional points of view was an unquestionable form of dualism. He agrees with Hettner, however, that this dualism cannot be expressed simply as the combination of a nomothetic and an idiographic science; systematic geography must include the study of unique cases, and regional geography must use generic concepts and principles. In any case, neither construction of laws nor the description of the unique represents the purpose of geography, or of any other science. The purpose of geography is the same in both branches, the comprehension of the areal differentiation of the earth, and this purpose cannot be solved either by systematic studies alone nor by regional studies alone, but requires both approaches. Consequently, he concludes, this dualism in approach is justified as necessary for the single aim which makes geography a unified science
This view, we may add, is further supported by the fact, stressed by Hettner, that it is frequently difficult to classify particular studies under one heading or the other. The difference is not in the substance, but in the point of view, and in certain kinds of studies these may be combined. For example, the systems of land-use classification previously discussed (Sec. X F, G) are intended to provide backgrounds for agricultural regional geography and they involve, in outline, a major part of the regional study of any area. At the same time, however, they represent systematic studies of particular element-complexes in their world distribution, so that it is by no means clear whether they belong more in the one or the other of our two major divisions.
Finally, if one agrees that both regional and systematic studies are included as essential parts of geography, we may perhaps dismiss any question of relative importance as irrelevant. For systematic geography, regional studies provide, not merely a source of detailed factual information that otherwise would hardly be available, but they also indicate problems of relationships that might easily be overlooked in systematic geography, and they provide the final testing ground for the generic concepts and principles of systematic geography. On the other hand, it is even more obvious that progress in interpretation of the interrelated phenomena of regional geography is constantly dependent on the development of such universals by systematic studies. Any assumption that these studies can be left to the systematic sciences concerned with each particular category of phenomena has been shown by experience to be unwarranted. The aspects of these phenomena with which geography is concerned--their relation to other earth phenomena in different parts of the world--are not of direct concern to those systematic sciences and are more commonly left unstudied, unless geographers study them, as Lehmann has shown. Systematic geography, he therefore concludes, is not to be thought of as a border area of geography, or merely as a propaedeutic, but represents "organs vital to the growth of geography, without which its regional crowning can as little exist as a real tree without its roots"
No comments:
Post a Comment