Dialectics and geography.

Abstract

A characteristic of the 1960s in English-speaking countries was the conflict between the new wave of radical geographers, who sought to make their discipline socially relevant above all else, and the traditionalists. This paper seeks to avoid the vicious circle of the two extremes and considers the argument as a dialectical opposition leading to synthesis. A section of the problems of knowledge and formal language in geography is followed by an introduction to Hegelian dialectics. Further sections describe how modern industrial society has tried to deny dialectics but, in so doing, has ensured the re-emergence of dialectical thought. -J.Welford