Pragmatic Discrimination of Space in Geography

Abstract

Space and its concepts have been adopted both as objects and methods in geographical studies. A lack of coordination in terms of their definitions, however, resulted in the babelization of space as a concept in geography. This study aimed to distinguish space as a concept from other concepts; the basis of geography is to contribute to a clear vision of space as a concept. To achieve that goal, we adopted a pragmatic method of discrimination, which identifies causes with effects. Pragmatic discrimination is a deductive way to understand substantial meanings of concepts; whatever the concepts are named, they can be regarded as one and the same if their substantial meanings are the same. Based on pragmatic discrimination, the following process was used in this study.

First, the influxes of theories on the concept of space from other disciplines are examined. Theories in geography, especially those of space, originally came from many related disciplines. By comparing geographical theories with those of other disciplines, geographical concepts of space are clearly explained. Three characteristics of space, substance, cognition, and relation, are found. Second, we examined these major concepts and related ones using pragmatism. We deduced what these connote in order to describe the general character of space. As a result, we found that: 1) Space as a concept in geography contains materialistic features. 2) The concept of space has been regarded as obvious. 3) In efforts to define space, geographers relied heavily on the concept of Landschaft.