Resumen

CAPEL, Horacio. Philosophy and science in geography, XVI-XXI centuries. Invest. Geog [online]. 2016, n.89, pp.5-22. ISSN 2448-7279.  https://doi.org/10.14350/rig.51371.

Some general aspects of the research program that began in the 1970s on the theory and history of geography, and its further development are presented in this paper. It addresses, first, the problem of the relationship between geography, science and philosophy from the Renaissance to the late Eighteenth century. Second, it refers to the evolution of geography in the Nineteenth and Twentieth centuries, and justifies the theoretical framework adopted for its analysis. Finally it alludes briefly to the new ways that open today from the developments of new information and communications technologies.

Geography can contribute its handling of spatial concepts, which were widely incorporated and reformulated from the 1950s, and which allow theorizing about the location, distribution of phenomena and their associations in the earth's surface. This is especially important today, when the amount of data available is vast and is continually growing. In this situation it is critical to reaffirm the importance of quantitative and positivist tradition in geography. Without losing the critical contributions that the discipline had in the last half century, and the ones that they have been made in various branches of human geography, from the historical to cultural geography.

Palabras llave : History of geography; geographic theory; positivism in geography; geography historicism.

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