Humanism is a loosely structured set of ideas
@@“Knowledge is subjective”@@
Humanistic geography developed from about 1970 onward
- Initially in strong opposition to positivism
@@Humanism focuses on humans as individual decision-makers, on the way humans perceive their world, and emphasizes subjectivity in general@@
There are several humanistic philosophies
Several other humanistic philosophies such as individuals’ personal existentialism and idealism have been advocated by geographies but not influential
Humanism raises two general issues
- The distinction between positivism and humanism is one of objectivism vs subjectivism
- Positivism contends that the study of human phenomena can be objective/humanism says that it cannot
- Positivism contends that the study of human phenomena can be objective/humanism says that it cannot
- Is there an interaction between the researcher and the research subject that invalidates the information collected?
- Does the researcher have a personal background that effectively influences her or his choice of problem, methods, and interpretation of results?
- If we view humans objectively, does this mean we see them as objects? If so, is this approach dehumanizing?
- Answering no → positivistic / Answering yes → humanistic
- Social Scale: Do we as human geographies study individuals or groups of people and, if the latter, what size of the group?
- Classic humanistic philosophies place some emphasis on individuals while traditionally we have focused on groups
- Most human geographers feel the emphasis on individuals is inappropriate
- Due to this, much humanistic work has been done on a group scale
- Groups are defined by culture, religion, language, ethnicity, gender, or sexuality