Values in geography

Abstract

Then said a teacher, Speak to us of Teaching.\nAnd he said:\nNo man can reveal to you aught but what which already lies half asleep in the drawing of your knowledge.\nThe teacher who walks in the shadow of the temple, among his followers, gives not of his wisdom but rather of his faith and his lovingness.\nIf he is indeed wise he does not bid you enter the house of his wisdom, but rather leads you to the threshold of your own mind…\nFor the vision of one man lends not its wings to another man.\n\tGibran, The Prophet\n\nWho, today, would not hesitate to attempt a published statement on “values in geography”? Perhaps someone thoroughly versed in moral philosophy, or someone imbued with what C. Wright Mills calls the “sociological imagination”; or perhaps someone convinced that geography is, or should be, “value free”. I am none of these. Each time I attempt to articulate a statement on the subject, I am overwhelmed with feelings of inadequacy, and lack courage to face the ambiguities surrounding the question Why should I, scarcely tend years since beginning graduate work in geography and caught in some unique value dilemmas in my own life, write on this subject? It is from a conviction of the present need for discussion of the question, and an assurance that it is as important now to raise issues as to resolve them.

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