DICHOTOMY AND DUALISM

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DICHOTOMY AND DUALISM

Definition:
Dichotomy: it refers to the branching of a subject into distinct streams of thought.
Dualism: means the existence of parallel streams of thoughts. 

             In other words, dualism means two aspects of a subject, i.e for geography subject there are two views one is giving importance to environment another is giving importance to social factor. The first among the dual is referred to as environmental determinism and another is known as social determinism. Hence, dual concepts lead to splitting up of the subject view into two as mentioned above. This leads to dichotomy which means splitting up of a subject on the basis of dual concepts emerged. Whatever dichotomy we go for is derived from three basic concepts:
1. Concept(Physical/Human)
2. Approach(Systematic or Regional)
3. Method(Formal or Functional)

Based on these three criteria, there are five basic dualism in geography:
1. Physical(Hecataeus of Miletus, Erosthenes, Ptolemy, etc. )  VS Human(Ritter, Strabo, Ratzel)

2. Systematic (Humbolt) VS Regional Geography(Ritter)(universal geography eg: understanding of tropical climate across globe v's chorology e. g: understanding of Southeast Asia).

3. Historical Vs contemporary geography (historical i.e what the region has gone through in history and its influence on society, for example, world wars, contemporary geography i.e. Present-day society, and present-day problems e.g. Ecotourism, waste management) Ratzel Brown was the propounder of this dichotomy.

4. Formal Vs Functional Sites (Formal refers to uniform and clear patterns, e. g.Uniform climate, uniform soil. Functional talks about functional characteristics like regional linkages).

Conclusion

  • Geography is multidimensional, not only in the number of topics and region but also in approaches of study.
  • Geography is multi-variant in:
                   1. Number of combinations of natural science, social science and mathematics.
                   2. Ways in which geographers may combine these elements.

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