Epistemological Problems in Human Geography

Abstract

Introduction Geography is the study of the earth's surface as the space withm which the human population lives. The internal logic of this study has tended to split geography into two parts: physical and human. The identity of physical geography is the more discernible part, as it is concerned with the study, over time, of the characters, processes, and distribution of inanimate phenomena in the space accessible to human beings and their instruments. Human geography, on the other hand, is not so clearly defined, as it deals with problems which are, in the final analysis, multidisciplinary or extradisciplinary in character. Thus, although human geography can be consistently defined as that part of the social sciences which studies people solely in relation to space and place, this study can range from synthesizing the relationship between human societies and the Earth's surface (in which people-environment relations are emphasized) to that of an all-encompassing coverage of all aspects of geography not directly concerned with the physical environment. One corollary of such an all-encompassing coverage is the multiplicity of approaches in human geography. As geographers probe further into the truth of the human phenomena, be it the interrelationship of people (individually or as groups) in their physical or social environment, the spatial and temporal distribution of human creations, or the organization of society and social processes, and as they draw increasingly from extraneous disciplines in the course of such probing, it has become more and more obvious that it is now impossible to forge and maintain a singular human geography. For instance, an economic geographer trying to understand the unequal distribution of incomes among population groups in different places will be ...