The Question of Method

Abstract

In the course of our discussion we have noticed how some traditions in geographical research have argued that geography is a law-finding science in the same sense as the natural sciences, while others have suggested that geography does not conform with this model of science. We have also commented critically on some concepts of nature and of space found in the geographical literature. In fact there has been a tendency for geography to oscillate between methodological positions and between conceptions of its subject-matter that can be broadly classified as being either materialist in the traditional sense or idealist. In opposition to these one-sided theories we wish to argue that historical materialism provides a basis for resolving some of the methodological and conceptual problems faced by geographers. To do this, we shall try to spell out the implications of the processes of material and ideal causality, both of which are incorporated in Marx’s conception of human practice but which are normally developed one-sidedly in traditional materialist or idealist theories, for the formulation of a more adequate method of analysis.