Philosophy of geography

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Geography and philosophy bear many of the same origins, coming from early Greek philosophical traditions. The poet Homer is considered by some as the founder of geography, his works the Iliad and the Odyssey are both works of literature, but contain a great deal of geographical information. These works were followed by philosophical dissertations as to the behaviour of nature, and the shape of the world, and in many cases included complex mathematical experiments. One example, Ptolemy's Geographia opens with a theoretical discussion about the nature and techniques of geographical inquiry, and then moves to detailed descriptions of much the known world.

This tradition of philosophical inquiry into the natural world is what lead to the development of geography, and continues to this day.

Contents

  • Spatial analysis is the process of analysing model results or geographical data.

  • Spatial - Concerned primarily with the patterns and processes on the earth's surface.
  • Ecological - Concerned primarily on the complex web of relationships between living and nonliving elements on the earth's surface.

Main article: Geosophy

Main article: Positivism

Primarily a concern over the past few decades, technological advancements have brought tracking systems, which were primarily militaristic in nature, into the abode of modern life. GPS advancements permit a wide array of uses, these may be benign, tracking your driving route, or they may be highly intrusive, permitting real time locational information which can be tracked anywhere. These concepts are not lost on an expanding number of private interests, which seek to use this potential for commercial gains; in many cases, these technologies are evident for a majority of consumers. The most persuasive example lies in the shopping cards of grocery chains, this information is applied in a number of ways, including flyer distribution, advertisement location, consideration of sales policies, etc.

Main article: Humanism

Feminism is an emerging branch of geography, in many ways it seeks to address the unequal distribution of women's rights across the world. These inequalities may be present on a micro- or macro-scale, within an individual family, or across an entire continent (such as women's rights and AIDS distribution across Africa, or globalization of prostitution).

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