Abstract
Contemporary science philosophy suggests that discussing ontological problems is of fundamental significance broadly within certain specific disciplines. Natural and social science research are inseparable from philosophical guidance; for instance, the philosophy of geography is the ideological basis for geography. The traditional philosophy of geography is methodology-oriented, which primarily emphasizes the “logical structure of geography explanations,” and ignores the discussion of its ontology. This study, in the context of the philosophy of science, explores the relationships between methodology, ontology, and the philosophy of geography, defines the connotations of geographical ontology, analyzes the links and differences between philosophical ontology and scientific ontology of geography, clarifies the nature of geographical ontology, and summaries its theoretical values. The ontology of geography incorporates the philosophically ontological beliefs of geographers and geographical schools and the ontological commitment of the theory of geography. As different geographers hold different philosophical viewpoints, their ontological beliefs are different; one geographical theory asserts an ontological commitment of “what is there,” which determines the nature and types of objectives the theory references. The ontological beliefs of geographers determine their epistemology, methodology, and axiology, and the ontological commitment of a geographical theory is the premise and basis of that theory.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
References
Anuqin B A, 1994. The Theoretical Problems of Geography. Beijing: The Commercial Press, 83–84. (in Chinese)
Bai G, 1995. The philosophical predicament in the development of geography. Acta Geographica Sinica, 50(3): 279–287. (in Chinese)
Bunge M, 2001. Scientific Realism: Selected Essays of Mario Bunge. Martin M ed. New York: Prometheus Books.
Bunge W, 1991. Theoretical Geography. Sweden: The Royal University of Lund, 231–232.
Burian R M, Trout J D, 1995. Ontological progress in science. Canadian Journal of Philosophy, 25(2): 1–17.
Cai Y, 1992. Preliminary views on some problems in the study philosophy of geography. Human Geography, 7(4): 1–5. (in Chinese)
Cai Y, Ye C, Chen Y et al., 2011. Methodology of Geography. Beijing: Science Press. (in Chinese)
Chatterjee A, 2011. Ontology, epistemology and multimethod research in political science. Philosophy of the Social Sciences, 43(1): 73–99.
Cuba E G, Lincoln Y S, 1994. Competing paradigms in qualitative research. In: Handbook of Qualitative Research. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications, 105–117.
Dilworth C, 1996. The Metaphysics of Science. London: Kluwer Academic.
Esfeld M, 2006. The impact of science on metaphysics and its limits. Abstracta, 2(2): 86–101.
Fry I, 2012. Is science metaphysically neutral? Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences, 43(3): 665–673.
Hanson N R, 1958. Patterns of Discovery: An Inquiry into the Conceptual Foundations of Science. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Harre R, 1997. Is there a basic ontology for the physical sciences? Dialectica: International Journal of Philosophy, 51(1): 17–34.
Hartshone R, 1958. The concept of geography as a science of space, from Kant and Humboldt to Hettner. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 48(2): 97–108.
Hartshorne R, 1959. Perspective on the Nature of Geography. Chicago: Rand McNally & Company, 6–7.
Harvey D, 1996. Explanation in Geography. Beijing: The Commercial Press. (in Chinese)
Heidegger M 1996. The Selected Works of Heidegger. Shanghai: Joint Publishing Company, 764–765. (in Chinese)
Hettner A, 1927. Die geographie: Ihre geschichte ihe wesen und ihre methoden. Breslau: Ferdinand HIRT, 131–132.
Hill M R, 1981. Positivism: A ‘hidden’ philosophy in geography. In: Themes in Geographic Thought. London: Croom Helm, 38–60.
Johnston R J, 1986. Philosophy and Human Geography. Baltimore: Edward Arnold.
Johnston R J, 2003. Order in space: Geography as a discipline in distance. In: A Century of British Geography. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 303–345.
Kitchin R, Tate N J, 2000. Conducting Research into Human Geography: Theory, Methodology and Practice. London: Pearson Education, 7–8.
Kuhn S T, 1996. The Structure of Scientific Revolution. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Lakatos I, 1978. The Methodology of Scientific Research Programmes. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Laudan L, 1984. Science and Values. Berkeley: University of California Press, 68–69.
Laudan L, 1991. Progress and Its Problem. Shanghai: Shanghai Translation Publishing House, 80–81. (in Chinese)
Lawson T, 2015. A conception of ontology. In: Social Ontology and Modern Economics. London: Routledge, 19–52.
Li J, 2003. Geography call for new theory. Geography Teaching Reference of Middle School, 25(4): 5–6. (in Chinese)
Li S, Wang Y, Cai Y, 2010. The paradigm transformation of geography from the perspective of complexity sciences. Acta Geographica Sinica, 65(12): 1315–1324. (in Chinese)
Li X, 2008. The metaphysical foundation of science: Science presuppositions. Academics in China, 23(2): 15–34. (in Chinese)
Liu J, 1996. Philosophy and ontology. Journal of Beijing Normal University (Social Science Edition), 57(6): 11–19. (in Chinese)
Liu J, 2016. On Williamson’s necessitism. Studies in Dialectics of Nature, 32(2): 19–23. (in Chinese)
Liu K, 2013. On the issues of ontology of geography. Studies in Dialectics of Nature, 29(10): 111–117. (in Chinese)
Lund M, Chang H, 2011. N R Hanson: observation, discovery, and scientific change. ISIS, 102(3): 593–595.
Ma L, Fang X, 2010. Bai Meichu’s ideas on geography expressed in his geographical philosophy. Studies in the History of Natural Sciences, 29(2): 177–184. (in Chinese)
Mäki U, 2001. The Economic World View: Studies in the Ontology of Economics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Meng J, 1989. On the theory of value of science of Larry Laudan. Studies in Dialectics of Nature, 5(3): 18–25. (in Chinese)
Pang Z, 1988. The ontology, epistemology and methodology of history. Historical Research, 28(1): 3–13. (in Chinese)
Peet R, 2007. Modern Geographical Thought. Beijing: The Commercial Press, 17–18. (in Chinese)
Plank M, 1989. Physics and philosophy. The Philosophical Problems of Natural Science, 8(2): 68–69. (in Chinese)
Quine W V, 1953. From a Logical Point of View. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.
Quine W V, 1966. The Ways of Paradox and Other Essays. New York: Random House, 127–128.
Rouse J, 2015. Scientific law, natural necessity, and Heideggerian ontology. Journal of Dialectics of Nature, 37(5): 103–115. (in Chinese)
Schaefer F K, 1953. Exceptionalism in geography: A methodological examination. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 43(3): 226–249.
Smith B, 2003. Ontology. In: Blackwell Guide to the Philosophy of Computing and Information. Oxford: Blackwell, 155–166.
Stanley L, 2012. Rethinking the definition and role of ontology in political science. Politics, 32(2): 93–99.
Sun J, Pan Y, Tang M et al., 2013. The strategic directions for geography. Acta Geographica Sinica, 68(2): 268–283. (in Chinese)
Sun X, 1985. All sciences are ontology and methodology. Social Journal, 18(6): 39–41. (in Chinese)
Tang M, 2009. The diversification of research approaches in human geography in Chinese Mainland. Geographical Research, 28(4): 865–882. (in Chinese)
Tang M, 2010. The methodological issues of human geography researches in mainland of China. Human Geography, 25(4): 1–6. (in Chinese)
Tymoczko T, 1991. Mathematics, science and ontology. Synthese, 88(2): 201–228.
Williams M, 1989. Historical geography and the concept of landscape. Journal of Historical Geography, 15(1): 92–104.
Wittgenstein L, 1996. Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus. Beijing: The Commercial Press.
Worrall J, 1994. The Ontology of Science. Brookfield: Dartmouth.
Wu K, 2006. On the issues of world view of system theory. Academics in China, 21(5): 99–108. (in Chinese)
Yang C, 2008. Scientific meaning of Quine’s thought for ontological commitment. Studies in Dialectics of Nature, 24(10): 6–12. (in Chinese)
Ye C, Cai Y, 2009. Re-evaluating Schaefer and his criticizing on exceptionalism in geography: A case study of the innovation of methodology. Acta Geographica Sinica, 64(9): 1134–1142. (in Chinese)
Ye C, Cai Y, 2010. The geographical methodology between subjectivity and objectivity. Geographical Research, 29(5): 947–958. (in Chinese)
Yu W, 2002. The resurgence and tendency of research in ontology. Zhejiang Academic Journal, 25(1): 46–52. (in Chinese)
Yu X, 2012. Ontology. Shanghai: Shanghai People’s Publishing House, 304–305. (in Chinese)
Zhang H, 1995. Ontology and epistemology: The basic problem of philosophy. The Journal of Humanities, 21(2): 11–15. (in Chinese)
Zhang N, 2000. The evolution and destiny of Western ontology theory. Philosophical Trends, 22(1): 37–40. (in Chinese)
Zhang Y, 2005. The truth of existence and existers: The rejuvenation of ontology in contemporary philosophy and the promise of ontology in modern philosophy. Theoretical Investigation, 14(1): 35–39. (in Chinese)
Zhou M, 2003. Philosophical ontology that pursues the highest rational wisdom. Academic Research, 34(4): 25–28. (in Chinese)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Foundation: Humanities and Social Science Research Project of Ministry of Education Fund, No.15YJA720003
Author: Liu Kai (1972–), PhD and Associate Professor, specialized in the philosophy of geography, geographical information science, urban and regional development.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Liu, K., Tang, M., Liu, R. et al. Geography’s “World view”: The ontological issues of geography. J. Geogr. Sci. 27, 1541–1555 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11442-017-1451-z
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11442-017-1451-z