The History of Geography: Translations of Some French and German Essays. Gary S. Dunbar

Isis ◽  
1985 ◽  
Vol 76 (1) ◽  
pp. 105-106
GEOgraphia ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 4 (8) ◽  
pp. 7
Author(s):  
Héctor F. Rucinque e Wellington Jiménez

RESUMO Por lo general, los historiadores de la ciencia reconocen la importaocia de Alexander von Humboldt en el desarrollo de la geografía moderna, si bien tal contribución especializada no es claramente desglosada de su multifacética producción científica. Con ocasión del bicentenario de su viaje a la América tropical, el papel de Humboldt en la formulación de las bases de una metodología analítica para la investigación geográfica, y su monumental trabajo sustantivo, lo mismo que su penetrante permanencia e inspiración en la tradición geográfica, deben acreditarse como justificación amplia y suficiente para su título de padre fundador de la geografía científica. Epígrafes: Humboldt, historia de la geografía, geografía moderna, metodología geográfica, exploración científica.ABSTRACT Alexander von Humboldt’s contributions to the development of modern geography are generally ackoowledged by historians of science, though not always stated precisely out of his many-sided scholarly production. On the occasion of the Bicentennial of his voyage to tropical America, Humboldt’s role in setting forth the foundation of an analytical methodology for geography as well as for his monumental substantive work, along with his pervasive and inspiring perrnanence in the geographical tradition, must be recognized as ample justification tu his title as founding father of scientific geography. Key words: Humboldt, history of geography, modern geography, geagraphical methodology, scientific exploration.


Author(s):  
Francesco SURDICH

Myth, utopia and the imaginary have represented fundamental categories of geographical thought, as Massimo Quaini highlighted in several of his contributions, which underlined their influence and importance for the history of geography in the construction and development of geographical concepts. The weight and role of these categories of interpretation of geographical reality were particularly important at the time of the great geographical discoveries in the process of opening the European horizon to new worlds, a complex process in which the geographical imaginary represented a stimulus and a push, as it happened for the genesis and development of the Colombian conceptual universe.


Author(s):  
Kanhaiya Sapkota

This review based article entails that in the history of geography, one of the most exciting philosophical and methodological debates is the dualism between regional and systematic geography. This problem of “universality” and “exceptionality” has caused the biggest methodological debate in the history of geography. It reflects in the dualism of systematic geography and regional geography. Systematic geographers emphasize the pursuit of general principles in geography, while regional schools argue that areas of unique research are at the heart of geography. An analysis of the historical roots and evolution of the controversy shows that although the representatives of the two schools, Hartshorne and Schaefer, at least formally oppose the emphasis on only one of the systems and regions and neglect the other. Their differences in interest, values-induced preferences, and geography of history make them be ultimately different in their regional geography and systematic geography. The “Schaefer-Hartshorne Debate” in the 1980s was the only aftermath of this dualism. Since then, the rise of the pluralism methodology has made this dualism debate gradually fade out of people’s horizons, but postmodern geography focuses on “critical regional research”, which is still essentially a variant of this debate in the new era. The lack of such controversy in our geography community may be due to the academic orientation of “pragmatism”. The academic environment, the academic evaluation system, and the theoretical construction of compromise. This is not conducive to Nepal's geography. It is independent of the world of science.


1903 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 181
Author(s):  
Joseph Fischer ◽  
Basil H. Soulsby

Author(s):  
Paul Stock

This chapter discusses the history of geography during the Romantic period, concentrating on contemporary books which attempt to describe the whole earth and, in doing so, set out procedures for geographical study. Noting that ‘geography’ can refer both to the physical characteristics of the earth’s surface, and to the disciplined interpretation of those characteristics, the chapter begins by outlining the range of methodologies employed by these works. At the heart of geographical enquiry in the Romantic period are a set of significant epistemological questions about knowledge acquisition, and the perception and interpretation of the world. The chapter illustrates this by showing how two contemporary maps of Europe use different methods to justify and represent the limits of ‘European’ space. Furthermore, an understanding of geographical epistemologies—with their different assumptions about how to comprehend and intervene in the world—can help us interpret the tumultuous political events of the period.


1914 ◽  
Vol 44 (6) ◽  
pp. 584
Author(s):  
B. C. W. ◽  
J. Scott Keltie ◽  
O. J. R. Howarth

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