The Positioning of Geography between Natural and Social Sciences: Which Methodology for Which Topic?

Abstract

Geography holds a special position that brings together natural and human phenomena. This raises questions about the approach of geographers to overcome the same methodological problems that all other social scientists undergo. Geography inherited a wide-reaching subject matter and a broad variety of methodology from Greek thought, and could not overcome this despite changes in successive theoretical contexts. It is true that the study of natural phenomena has contributed to some sort of identification with experimental science methodology, but addressing human phenomena did not enable it to overcome the methodological obstacles experienced by the social sciences and humanities.