Possibilities of Paradigms in Cartography

Abstract

Basically, there are two ways of analysing whether Kuhnian-type paradigms exist in cartography. First, we apply the criteria of contrast used in the distinction of science types. These criteria establish the differences between formal sciences and factual sciences and also distinguish between regional and quantitative geography. Second, an analysis based upon the ‘tendency distribution in the epistemological-space’ (Azócar 2012) is applied. The distribution or ‘location’ of tendencies permits the identification of paradigmatic-shifts according to epistemological and philosophical ‘coordinates’. The term coordinates corresponds to the three bases of modern thought: positivism-empiricism, realism-structuralism, and idealism-hermeneutics. This approach is applied to modern geographic thought and then to the cartography of the modern and post-modern period. The aim is to locate cartographic tendencies according to the epistemological coordinates rather than to describe the technological changes that occurred during the development of the discipline.