Idealism

From Geography

Idealism is a humanist philosophy based around the belief that the world is constructed through the human mind (Johnston, 2000, p. 367), in stead of matter. In geography idealism aims to be ‘rethinking the thoughts behind actions of human events’ (Johnston, 2000, p. 364).

Two types of Idealism can be distinguished:

- metaphysical idealism: Founding father of this ideology is the Greek philosopher Plato. The ideology argues that the activity of human mind is distinct from the material world and cannot be controlled by material things and processes (Johnston, 2000, p. 367). The basic assumption for this ideology is that reality is based on experiences. Plato has written about this in his allegory of the cave.

- epistemological idealism: According to epistemological idealism the world we observe is created by our own minds and ideas. The core of our reality is somehow dependent from the spirit. What people observe for example tables, trees, mountains and so on are existing ‘things’, but are no material objects but immaterial performances. This means that what we see is not the real representation of an object, but the created/ transformed representation of our minds. Human beings can never be capable to see the real representation of the object, because they cannot reach this level of idealism.

One of the philosophers that is best known for using this idealistic philosophy is Emmanuelle Kant. He argued that reality can only be produced by the mind through our interpretations, ideas and perceptions. The natural world becomes a creation of the mind (Harvey, M. E. & Holly, B.P. ,1981, p. 127). Another philosopher that is also famous for his idealistic thoughts in geography is Guelke. Geulke tried to understand the development of cultural landscapes by uncovering the thought that lies behind them (Johnston, 2000, p. 364).He argued that “[..]human geography that sees its role as one of rethinking the thoughts behind the actions of ‘human’ events with tangible environmental-landscape impacts”(Cloke, P.& Philo, Ch. & Sadler, D. ,1991, p. 70). Guelke argued that all history is the history of the human mind. According to Guelke the human geographer don’t need theories of his own because he is concerned with the theories that are expressed in the actions of the person that is investigated. Therefore the central object in research is to recover rationality and intentionality in human actions (Johnston, 2000, p. 367). Following this philosophy, makes it even more difficult to formulate geography as a science, because geographers also choose subjects and derive meaning to specific subjects according to their own stock of knowledge, discourse and experiences. Scientists are therefore not able to write or think in an objective way, which make creating an ideal geographical science impossible.

Idealism may be seen as the contrary of materialism, where the ideal reality lies in the physical material objects.

References

• Cloke, P.& Philo, Ch. & Sadler, D. (1991) Approaching Human Geography. London: Chapman.

• Harvey, M. E. & Holly, B.P. (1981). Themes in geographic thought. Croom Helm: Beckenham

• Johnston, R. (2000). The dictionary of human geography. Malden :Blackwell publishing

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