Authority and Charisma: Criteria of Validity in Geographical Method

Abstract

Current developments in geography and environmental science seem inevitably to demand a fundamental reappraisal of method, and of the criteria by which the validity of general statements is judged. Following Braithwaite (1968) and Popper (1968, 1969), the fundamental distinction is made between inductive and deductive strategies of relating ideas to facts The associated methodologies of inductivism on the one hand and of scientific deductive method on the other are contrasted, and the implications of the increasing employment Of the second in geography are explored, under four headings: 1. The approach to problem-solving;2. The recognition of a focus for study, and the evolution of a conceptual framework;3. The planning of a strategy appropriate to the study of geographical phenomena;4. The development of geographical theory. The relationship Of concept to method is examined in the thought of Sir Halford Mackinder, and it is argued that the concepts of his “New Geography” are incapable of realization using traditional method, but that they may be successfully developed using scientific deductive method.

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