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Phenomenology, science and geography : towards a hermeneutic ontology of spatiality for the human sciences

Author
Pickles, John, 1952-
Published
[Place of publication not identified] : [publisher not identified], 1983.
Physical Description
301 leaves

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Summary
Correctly conceived, phenomenology does not adopt any particular position, standpoint, or world-view in regard to the state of affairs. It is not, in this sense, a world-view philosophy or an -sim. Rather, it is a the name for a method which allows 'original experiences' to be seen. In this regard phenomenology is essentially related to and provides the grounding for the empirical sciences. It serves (1) to provide the foundation for the genesis of the empirical sciences from pretheoretical experiences, (2) to elucidate their way of approaching the pre-given reality, and (3) to specify the kind of concept formation which accrues to such research. This work asks several basic questions concerning the nature of science and of geographical inquiry. In a preliminary fashion it asks: How can we have a truly human science? How can we have a truly human science of geography? And, how can we understand the nature of geography and its central problematics, particularly its concern with space and place, in this regard? The work is divided into four parts. Part I, Geography and Traditional Meta-physics, shows how geographical inquiry is founded on an unexamined ontology of physical nature and a positivistic objectivism. The resultant objectivism and epistemological subjectivism have distorted the discipline's own conception of its subject-matter and its basic concepts. In particular, they have resulted in the unquestioned adoption of a conception of spatiality moat appropriate for the physical sciences, but one which is of little value in describing the spatiality characteristic of man. Part II, Geography and Phenomenology, shows how this underlying metaphysical position and fundamental ontology of physical nature has influenced the approaches to and interpretations of phenomenology in geography. 'Geographical phenomenology' is distinguished from phenomenology and phenomenological geography, and the claims that have been made regarding 'geographical phenomenology' are explicated. Part III, Phenomenolosy and the Question of Human Science, seeks to retrieve phenomenology in order to counter positivist claims concerning science and to deny the objectivism and subjectivism of contemporary human science. We also show the essential relationships between positive empirical science and descriptive phenomenological science, and use phenomenology to ground the sciences, (i) in genuine experience, (ii) through clarification of basic concepts, and (iii) by the delimitation of the regions of the phenomena with which the sciences deal. Finally, we show how the character of science is essentially as abstractive, reductive, objectifying, and thematizing. The final chapter of Part III seeks to ground science in human experience in such a way that Part IV can retrieve spatiality as an appropriate and necessary conception for geography as human science. Part IV, Human Science, Worldhood, and Spatiality, clarifies the nature of human science, and provides a more balanced view of science than the overly empiricist one with which we now deal. Here we also determine the realm of concern for a geographic science and retrieve the orginal experience of, the basic concepts for, and the constitution of a science of human spatiality.
Dissertation Note
Ph.D. Pennsylvania State University.
Reproduction Note
Microfilm (positive). 1 reel 35mm., (University Microfilms 83-20925).
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