Aperçu sur la géographie théorique.

Abstract

A survey of theoretical geography. Introductory article on the principal characteristics of theoretical geography, as seen in reading recent work. These features are : a) the priority given to the elaboration of explanatory theory; b) the comparison of the theoretical scheme and the reality and the evaluation of the difference between theory and observations; c) the recourse, for this comparison, to statistical methods and computer techniques; d) the idea that by the intermediary of general theories a certain scientific unity can be approached; e) the idea that the new ways of research are situated on border lines common to several disciplines. It seems wrong to continue to speak of a " new geography ", this now being almost twenty years old, or of " quantitative geography ", since classical inductive geography also made use of certain quantities. But, whilst classical geography and cartography have remained "numerical", the Scandinavian-English-speaking school has used "statistical laws"; this is the first fundamental difference. The second lies in the efforts of " theoretical geography " in constructing theories to overcome classical geography's essential weakness : its inability to generalize.