Newtonian Human Geography
From Geography
In the 1950’s, human geographers began to use a new approach for their spatial science. The idea behind this was that geography should be a science like any other science. The goal of this approach was to search for fundamental laws for spatial science. This new way of thinking made that the humanism approach was receded into the background of geography.
In the Newtonian Human Geography, geographers try to explain and predict patterns of human action like Newton used natural laws for explaining gravitational attraction. So, geographers began to compare their research to Newton’s gravity models. During the Renaissance, the idea that God created everything on the Earth was replaced gradually by the idea that the Earth functioned by natural laws, such as gravity. Mathematical reasoning and empirically testing were part of Newton’s studies. He modelled the world in series of cause-effect structures. The impact of Newton in the science of human geography can be understood in two levels. In the first level, the projects to understand the physical and human worlds were directly inspired by Newton, for example data collection and global mapping. In the second level, Newton’s work impacted the working assumptions of scholars of several generations who were practicing geographical descriptions. These descriptions were used for exploration of the globe, cartography or chorography during the Enlightment.
Although Newton’s work was effective on the geographic science, some geographers criticized the Newtonian Human Geography. According to them, more probabilistic or stochastic approaches were needed for spatial science, because random factors played an important role in the ‘ideal’ patterns of behaviour and location.
Literature
Agnew, J. & Cuncan, J.S. (2011). Human Geography [Electronic version]. Accessed on 6 september 2012.
Cloke, P., Philo, C. & Sadler, D. (eds.) (1991). Approaching Human Geography [Electronic version]. Accessed on 6 september 2012.
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