Hartshorne and Harvey

Abstract

Many geographical stuides have focused on man's relationship to his environment, with-out much consideration to man himself. For such geography it is sufficient to presuppose interactions of determinism or possibilism between man and his environment. When we intend to describe the history of modern geography, what kind of perspective should be kept in our mind? In regard to this problem, we have usually tried to get an insight into the method and the structure of geographical science, and to trace their changes in a historical context, identifing its status in the classification of sciences. This perspective, however, does not tell us how and why the method and the structure of geography have been brought into existence and have been subject to change. Therefore, we need another perspective which seeks the “logic of change” in the method and the structure of geography. This paper is a tentative essay, although highly metaphysical, on the history of modern geography interpreting it in some broader perspective. Both determinists and possibilists in the history of geography have interpreted the following point in common: geography simply deals with what there is in the objective (sachliche) world, i. e. phenomena and relationships among phenomena. In this objective world, man is also viewed as a kind of “object”. But I believe that man is not an “object” in the ordinary sense, for he does not merely live in a realistic world, but also in a philosophi-cal world. This paper develops a humanistic approach which distinguishes man from a sphere of non-being (compared to being of man) which, as a result, allows him to maintain his subjec-tivity. This approach is made from a philosophical point of view as oppossed to a (traditional) geographer's point of view, which is concerned with the external character-istics of man in relation to the objective world. As a science of our “external world”, geography is concerned with man in the objective world. Man is assumed as “being”, but its presence is not to be questioned. In order to understand this man in the objective world, adequate methodology must be used for satis-factory understanding. As a result of this methodology, the geographer places man as “subject” whose being thereby conforms. This placement sends man as “subject” to the “external world” as a result of being separated from his “pure subjectivity” in a philoso-phical sense. This shifting process of man to the “external world” is the logic which is based, in my opinion, for the historical development of modern geography, which can best be characterized as “Humanization of Man.” In the light of this process, this paper analyses the historical development of modern geography from Hartshorne to Harvey. The result of my investigation reveals that man who enters into geography has evolved from “physiological man, through ”intelligence to “subject with intentional consciousness”. At each stage of the evolution, each para-digm of geography is established respectively. Hartshorne's geography ( The Nature of Geography, 1939) belongs to the second stage and Harvey's (Explanation in Geography, 1969) to the third. Some fundamental aspects of the history and the structure of modern geography are summarized in the following table. The History and the Structure of Modern Geography This schema requires some explanations. First, it is important to recognize that the mode of determining man conditions the mode of geography logically.