Geography as a science of the earth’s surface founded on the third view of space

Abstract

The third or organismic view of space states that space is neither lifeless nor neutral, but a living structure capable of being more living or less living, thus different fundamentally from the first two mechanistic views of space: Newtonian absolute space and Leibnizian relational space. The living structure is defined as a physical and mathematical structure or simply characterized by the recurring notion (or inherent hierarchy) of far more small substructures than large ones. This paper seeks to lay out a new geography as a science of the Earth’s surface founded on the third view of space. The new geography aims not only to better understand geographic forms and processes but also–maybe more importantly–to make geographic space or the Earth’s surface to be living or more living. After introducing two fundamental laws of geography: Tobler’s law on spatial dependence (or homogeneity) and scaling law on spatial heterogeneity, we argue that these two laws are fundamental laws of living structure that favour statistics over exactitude, because the former (or statistics) tends to make a structure more living than the latter  (or exactitude). We present the concept of living structure through some working examples and make it clear how a living structure differs from a non-living structure, under the organismic worldview that was first conceived by the British philosopher Alfred Whitehead (1861–1947). In order to make a structure or space living or more living, we illustrate two design principles–differentiation and adaptation–using two paintings and two city plans. The new geography is a science of living structure, dealing with a wide range of scales, from the smallest scale of ornaments on walls to the scale of the entire Earth’s surface.