No one would ask such a silly question – Is physics a science? No doubt physics is a science and actually it is commonly recognized as the king of sciences.
Let me put this question into a context. Recently I made a talk at the AAG 2018 meeting, and it was entitled “Three Fundamental Issues on Geography as a Science of the Earth's Surface”. I think that geography has three fundamental issues regarding geographic space: (1) How it looks? (2) How it works? and (3) What it ought to be? The first two issues are very common to many other sciences including physics, while the third issue is very unique to geography or architecture. Hardly there are other sciences that really concern about the issue of “what it ought to be”. What it ought to be goes beyond understanding and explanation towards making or creation or design.
The third issue implies that geography is not a minor science, but a major science that can contribute to science rather than passively receive wisdom from other sciences. To paraphrase Christopher Alexander, geography will play a revolutionary role… will do for the world view of the 21st and 22nd centuries, what physics did for the 19th and 20th.
I welcome your discussions and criticisms.
Geography is a field of science devoted to the study of the lands, the features, the inhabitants, and the phenomena of Earth. In general, geography is certainly a science, but not traditional sciences. Geographical Science investigates the spatial patterns of physical and human phenomena at local, national and global scales. It examines the patterns and processes of natural and built environments and human activity, how they change over time and how they interact.
@Raj Singh, Geography you conceived is still a minor science, receiving wisdom from other major sciences such as physics, mathematics, and computer science. Geography I am talking about is a major science that can contribute to science. Herewith a source of my inspirations: http://www.katarxis3.com/Alexander_Architecture_Science.htm
When we think of geography do we think about memorizing capitals, rivers, mountains, and states or coloring maps? Sadly, this is how geography is taught too often in elementary and grade schools. In reality, geography is one of the most high-tech scientific disciplines in the science community.
Geography is often times called the “mother of all sciences” because geography is one of the earliest known scientific disciplines that date back to the original Homo-sapiens who migrated out of eastern Africa, into Europe, Asia, and beyond. In fact, some would argue that spatial awareness and early mapping were more significant to the development and migration of humans out of Africa than language
The Scientific Process of Geography. Geography is considered a science and thus also uses the scientific method for data collection, analysis, and interpretation. There is no true definition of the scientific method because it varies so much between scientific disciplines. What makes the scientific discipline of geography different from other science disciplines is its emphasis on space, place, and connection.
Wishes
Geography is an activity using scientific methods (reproducibility; transparency). Geography is a scientific discipline at many universities. The object of (physical) geography and/or geomorphology is the earth's surface (land) or geosphere. Social geography takes the spatial distribution of humankind over the earth's surface as its object. The physical and social branches share the spatial perspective/paradigm, that is scale, location (lat, long, elevation), size (metric units), shape (geometric) and pattern (various classification systems).
Biogeography, ecology and environmental science also include the spatial (geographical) perspective/paradigm for biological objects, the biosphere.
'What ought to be' seems not a natural, but political science and desirabilities may be argued from many scientific perspectives (e.g. meteorology/climate change).
Landscape architecture, land use zoning and spatial planning are practical activities with substantial (bio-)geographical components.
A paradigm shift in the spatial sciences has arguable come from geospatial observation (remote sensing) and data analysis (GIS) tools.
By what it ought to be, I meant how to make geographic space or the built environment in particular more sustainable, more beautiful, more living, or more resilient. All these notions of sustainability, beauty, livingness, and resilience have roots in the wholeness, which is defined mathematically, exists in space and matter physically, and reflects in our minds and cognition psychologically. Based on the concept of wholeness, goodness of geographic space is not matter an opinion, but a matter of fact:
Article A Complex-Network Perspective on Alexander's Wholeness
@ Hein Van Gils The paradigm you mentioned is featured by Tobler's law or the first law of geography, focusing on more or less similar things, by Euclidean geometry, describing regular or simple shapes, more critically framed by mechanistic thinking as shown in geographic representations of vector and raster or object oriented representation focusing on relationship of geometric primitives such as pixels, points, lines and polygons rather than meaningful geographic features such as streets, cities, and buildings. I have been advocating a paradigm shift, featured by scaling law and fractal or living structure for far more smalls than larges, more critically framed by Alexander's organic world view - "space is neither lifeless nor neutral, but has a capacity to be more living or less living". This organic world picture is founded on the notion of wholeness, which defined as a recursive structure mathematically or physically, and reflects in our minds and cognition psychologically. If geographers were willing to adopt this new world picture, geography would have a promising future; "geography will play a revolutionary role… will do for the world view of the 21st and 22nd centuries, what physics did for the 19th and 20th."
See this book for more information
Book Geographies of Science
- Badges
- Science topic
- Similar topics
- Geoscience
- Geoinformatics
- Geographic Information System