The traditional epistemology and the modern geography

Resumo

A review of the treatment given to the notion of scientific method by the post-empiricist philosophers of the twentieth century, as also of the foundation of human sciences, according to Foucault and the notion of positivism, according to the critics of the School of Frankfurt, led us to the debate over the scientific character of geography especially in the last two hundred years. From the analysis of the texts of the main theorists of geography, it is argued that the modern geographical discourses are in general on the fringes of the debates held in the scope of the history and the philosophy of science during the twentieth century. The concern about the definition of method and objects of study specific to this discipline lends itself as evidence that the traditional methodology also serves as the foundation of modern geography.