Dichotomy and Dualism

DICHOTOMY AND DUALISM
The thinking and knowledge of human being is always dynamic which

generates over a period of time under the influence of society, culture,
geography, climate and peer group interaction. All these things can be best
understood by analyzing concept of regional synthesis that sphere of
geography is not homogenous and is guided by various sister disciplines
which over period of time create dichotomy and dualism.
Dichotomy means branching of subject into 2 parts- Dualism also

stands for dichotomy. Geographers right from classical period have been
dividing subject into 2:- Human and physical geography. Over a period of
time, several dichotomies emerged out of which some are General Vs
Regional geography, Physical Vs Human geography, Historical Vs
Contemporary geography, Study of formal sites Vs Study of functional sites,
Deterministic Vs Spatial/Possibilistic geography.
Dichotomy of physical and human geography is as old as discipline of

geography itself. The Greeks were probably the first who stated and started
dichotomy of physical and human geography.
Hecataeus gave more emphasis to physical geography.
Similarly Eratoshenes and Ptolemy gave more importance to physical

geography while Strabo and his disciples were in favour of human
geography.
Verinus whose Georgraphical Generalis published in 1650 was one of the

1st scholar to suggest that the universal and special laws can be framed in
geography. The laws of physical geography can be universal, while the
special laws can be framed about human society, is related a work of human
geography.
The scholars who advocated the growth of physical geography are

Hecateous, Kant, Humboldt, Darwin, Davis, penck and L.C. king, where as
human geographers such as Herodotus, Ratzel, Miss semple, Huttington,
Ritter, Mackinder, Harris, Burges, carl-o-saur and stamp related to study of
human geography.
Verinus was the first geographer who divided the geography into general or
universal and special or particular. In the opinion of Verinus, general
geography deals with the formulation of universal laws which are common
for the physical geography, while the spatial/particular geography
providing space for regional geography which is more related to human
geography as spatial geography can formulate laws/theories only for
particular region as well as for human geography.
To understand the depth of dichotomy, we may go into historical

development of human geography. Ritter and Ratzel were among early
geographers who consider man as an important agent to change existing
landscape. Vidal de Lablache opined that main objective of geography to
study PAYS(region). Pays are ideal units of study and he argued that
regional geography is core of discipline of geography.
In USA, human geography received an impetus from idea put forward

by Mark Jefferson’s central place in the form of primate city concept. After
2nd WW, Systematic geography is essential analytical whereas regional
geography is essentially synthetic and deals with unique situation and
peculiarities. Systematic geography examines phenomenon at the whole
world level like temperature, vegetation, soil, crops, rainfall, population,
and so on. So, theorists like Koeppen, Whittlesey, stump, candolle, penck-
all belonged to school of systematic geography.
In contrast to this, if we study landforms, climate , soil, vegetation and

superimposed these physical variables on cultural landscape, this would be
a case of regional/physical geography.
In opinion of Barry, the regional and general are not different

approaches but extreme of continuum.
Fig. Distribution of geographical content along continuum
Anuchin the soviet geographer, summarized controversy by saying that

systematic geography cannot exist without regional geography and regional
geography cannot be survived without systematic geography. In brief,
dichotomy of systematic vs regional falls and they are complementary to
each other.
The dichotomy of physical and human geography was sharpened in later

parts of 19th century and 1st half of 20th century. It was under this influence
that department of physical geography and also another department by
name human geography in western world and also in Asian countries like
India.
Still some of the geographers considered the main area of geography as to

explain variations in physical attributes of earth surface like landform
classi, geomorphology, oceanography, biogeography and climatology in
which universal laws can be formulated. In opposition, a substantial
majority of geographers both in developing and developed countries take
geography as a social science but in general dichotomy of physical and
human geography is artificial and in fact they are not in opposition but
complimentary to each other.

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DICHOTOMY AND DUALISM

The thinking and knowledge of human being is always dynamic which

Dichotomy means branching of subject into 2 parts- Dualism also

Dichotomy of physical and human geography is as old as discipline of

Hecataeus gave more emphasis to physical geography.

Similarly Eratoshenes and Ptolemy gave more importance to physical

Verinus whose Georgraphical Generalis published in 1650 was one of the

The scholars who advocated the growth of physical geography are

To understand the depth of dichotomy, we may go into historical

In USA, human geography received an impetus from idea put forward

In contrast to this, if we study landforms, climate , soil, vegetation and

In opinion of Barry, the regional and general are not different

Anuchin the soviet geographer, summarized controversy by saying that

The dichotomy of physical and human geography was sharpened in later

Still some of the geographers considered the main area of geography as to

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