Space, Totality and Method

Abstract

This article discusses the mediative relationship between geographical space and totality. This is a methodological reflection based on the contributions of the philosophical traditions, known as ontological and critical approaches. The qualitative distinction between the gnosiological and ontological perspective in knowledge production is indispensable in addressing this relationship between geographical space and totality. Accordingly, we first address the relationship between theory, practice, and criticism of the main subject of this article, as well as the specificity of scientific knowledge. Theory should not subordinate practice, nor should practice detract from theory. There is a dialectical reciprocity between the two elements, and theoretical knowledge must be able to translate the essence of real and effective movements. We also present the natural and social functions of the geographic space in its articulations of the totality. We conclude that geographic space must always be analyzed in combination with totality and that this dynamic, in turn, cannot be understood only as a sum of its components. This sum congregates a network of qualitative mediations generated from the reciprocal determinations that are established between the social complexes that constitute and dynamize the sum. In addition, we note the influences that production can exert in space through the predominant mediation of the socio-spatial totality.