Paradigms and Exemplars

7/29/2019 Paradigms and Exemplars

1/9

GROUP A

DEFINE AND EXPLAIN PARADIGMS.LIST THE

EXAMPLARS IN EACH PARADIGM.

The term Paradigm was first coined by the epistemologist Thomas S Kuhn, in his book

The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Kuhn defined paradigms as universally

recognised scientific achievements that for some time provide model problems and solutions

to a community of practitioners. He used Paradigm to denote a generally accepted set of

assumptions and procedures which served to define both subjects and methods of scientific

enquiry. According to Hagget, however, paradigms are a kind of Supermodel. Paradigms

provide intuitive or inductive rules about the kinds of phenomena scientists should investigateand the best methods of investigation.

Kuhn, in his subsequent editions, stated that he had conflated two conceptually distinct

though empirically inseparable connotations of paradigms- EXEMPLARS and

DISCIPLINARY MATRICES. Kuhn argued that the most basic function of a paradigm is an

Exemplar a concrete problem solution within a discipline that serves as a model for

successive scientists. The other meaning of paradigm put forward by Kuhn is a Disciplinary

Matrix the entire constellation of beliefs, values and techniques and so on shared by the

members of a given community. A Disciplinary Matrix may be shared by a group of

members of a discipline while at the same time each member is working with different

Exemplars in his or her everyday research.

Kuhn has used Paradigm in at least 21 different ways which were collapsed into three

paradigm types by Masterman-

The Metaphysical or Metaparadigms : those which present a total global view ofscience

The Sociological paradigms : that which is based on concrete scientific achievement The Artefact or Construct paradigms: one in which specific entities such as textbooks

and instrument or a classic work are viewed as paradigms.

Geographic thought, at any point of time, is a manifestation of the interaction between

the prevailing philosophical viewpoints and the major methodological approaches in

vogue. For the new researchers, paradigms is one such concept that provides the

theoretical feedback. In the light of Kuhns model, one can discuss the evolution of

paradigms in geography through various stages in succession. The discipline saw the

successive and respective emergence of Environmentalism, Spatial Analysis, Aerial

differentiation, humanistic geography, as all representing ParadigmShifts in the basic

methodology of research. The pre-paradigm phase is marked by conflicts among several

distinct schools, which centre on individual scientists dating back to 5th

century B.C. This

stage is followed by the stage of scientific maturity and the professionalization of the

discipline, marked by the concentration of geographical research in the western world.

The transition begins when the question of what a specific science is becomes acute. Adisciplinary matrix had to be defined for such a degree course, which would also secure


2/9

and democratic geographys domain from other university disciplines. Thus, a paradigm

is established that leads to concentrated research within a clearly distinguishable problem

area- an activity described as normal science.

The normal science is replaced by a crisis phase involving basic philosophical debates

and discussions of methodological questions. This phase ends when a new paradigmattracts a growing number of researchers away from the old paradigms. The acceptance ofa new disciplinary matrix inaugurates a revolutionary phase .It is characterised by a

break in the continuity of research and development, of the research fields theoretical

structure. Accepting a new paradigm is also revolutionary because it attracts allegiance of

the young research workers.

The new paradigm will provide solution for the problems which the old one found difficult to

resolve but may not answer all the questions that were easy to solve before. Thus, it is not

logical to say that the new paradigm is better than the old one. Such paradigm changes are

caused by a revolution and are affected through a linkage of events.

Fig 1: Kuhns theory for the development of a new paradigm.

1.1ENVIRONMENTAL DETERMINISM

According to Arildt Holt Jensen,Determinism can be said to represent geographys first

paradigm phase,. Environmental determinism is the belief that the environment (mostly

physical factors like landforms or climate) determines the pattern of human culture and

societal developments. The main argument of determinism states that an areas physical

characteristics like climate have a strong impact on the psychological outlook of its

inhabitants .These varied outlooks then spread throughout a population and help define the

overall behaviour and culture of a society.

A very vivid description of the idea of determinism is found in Hippocrates book On Airs,Waters and Places where he contrasts the easy going Asians living in a very favourable

PRE-

PARADIGM

PHASE

PROFESSIO

-

NALISATIO

N

PARADIGM

A

NORMAL

SCIENCE

ANOMALIE

SCRISIS

REVOLUTIO

N

PARADIGM

B


3/9

region with the penurious Europeans, who must seek through greater activity some

improvement of their environment. He also contrasts the tall, gentle, brave folk of the windy

mountains with the lean, sinewy, blond inhabitants of the dry lowlands.

Much of the geographical work of the last hundred and fifty years, either implicitly or

explicitly has taken inspiration from biology, in particular from Darwin. Darwins origin ofspecies can thus be interpreted as one of the first exemplars in the subject .There are four

themes that are taken to be especially significant contributions to geographical thought from

biology and particularly, from Darwin. 1) The idea of change through time. 2) The idea of

organisation. 3) The idea of struggle and selection. 4) The randomness of variations in

nature.

The strongest and the most explicit impact of evolution was in the study of landforms,

especially in Davis paper where he took evolution as his inspiration in the idea of the

geographical cycle .He likens this geographical cycle to a cycle of life using analogy like

birth, youth, maturity and old age to bring in the analogy of an organism undergoing a

sequence of changes through time. So successful was he in promoting this view that in hishands geomorphology evolved from being a mere nominal classificatory science to a study of

the origin of landforms and not just the landforms themselves. Darwins second major

contribution, according to Stoddart, Darwins second major contribution to geography was

the idea of inter-relationships and connections between all living things and their

environment developed in Haeckels new science of ecology. Darwin had been impressed by

the exquisite adaptation and inter-relationships of organic forms in nature and the theme of

ecology is implicit in many of his writings.

Jean Baptist Lamarcks theory of Inheritence of acquired Characteristics allows the

religious concepts of holistic design and teleological purpose to be retained , easing the

transition from providential design to natural law as the source of social legitimation.

Thus,we find environmental determinists prominent in the institutionalization andtheorization of early modern Geography.Halford Mackinder,in his Heartland theory, put

forth the concept of the geostrategic importance of an area,depending on its physical location.

Ellen C. Semple (1863-1932) , a former student of Ratzel and a reluctant social Darwinist

wrote books such as American History and its geographic conditions (1903) and Influences

of Geographic Environment (1911) .Throughout the work , she applied scientific methods to

demonstrate the geographic factor worked directly to influence the expression of racial

characteristics and indirectly to define apersons psychological, social , political and cultural

characteristics (Peet, 1985).This racial theme or scientific racism was promoted during the

next three decades particularly in climatic determinism of Huntington and in ethnographicstudies conducted by Taylor on Australia , Canada and Antarctica. It even provides the Nazi

Regime with a convenient but a distorted justification for its geo-political an eugenic policies

during the late 1930s and early 1940s. According to anthropologist Franz Boas and many

other scholars, environmental determinism failed to offer a theory of human consciousness

and progress, as well as explanations of differences in the histories of societal organisations

and processes. He labelled the theory simplistic and reductionist because it failed to explain

how vastly different cultures could emerge in the same environment (Livingstone, 1992).

This philosophy remained dominant for about a hundred and fifty years before the role of

man and his dominance over nature began to be established. It has also been linked to the

various political situations prevailing in different countries at that time , when the imperialistpowers began to explain their conquests with deterministic theories. On the other hand, some


4/9

liberal countries like France and US did not believe in this philosophy. This led to the

beginning of the philosophy of possibilism.

1.2 POSSIBLISM

Environmental possibilism was set forth by the French geographer Paul Vidal de la Blacheand stated that the environment sets limitations for cultural development but it does not

completely define culture. Culture is instead defined by the opportunities and decisions that

humans make in response to dealing with such limitations.

Nature sets limits and offers possibilities for development, but the way man adjusts to the

natural conditions of the area of his inhabitance is largely a function of his own tradition and

mental structuring. The same environment carries different meanings to people with different

generes de vie (ways of living or culture). According to Blache , culture (i.e., inherited traits)

is the basic factor in determining which of the many possibilities in the natural environment

shall be selected by a given community.

Vidals programme was endorsed by the historian Lucien Febvre in a famous phrase: there

are not necessities but everywhere possibilities; and man as master of these possibilities is the

judge of their use.

The limits set by nature to mans action vary from placeto place on the earths surface and

from one historical period to another. According to possibilists it is man who is the primary

architect of his culture. It depends on the choices he makes among the possibilities offered by

the environment. In order to make use of the possibilities of nature man makes two kinds of

adjustments, viz. Adaptation and Modification. The basic concept of possibilism does not

exclude the nature totally from its definition; rather it gives more importance to human

choice. The human choice, in turn, depends on his needs, tastes and capacities. The man

interacts with nature with the prism of his culture.

Taken to extremes, this view can be as ludicrous as determinism, but possibilists in general

did acknowledge their limits and avoided the broad generalisations that characterised their

antagonists.

It so happens with most dichotomies that, what begins as a hardcore opposition between two

conflicting schools of thought culminates in a compromise between the two, which is

accepted by all except for the most staunch believers of either group. The same may be said

for the conflict between environmental determinism and possibilism.

The concept of neo-determinism was put forward by Griffith Taylor-a leading Australian

geographer. He argued that the possibilists had developed their ideas in temperate

environments such as north western Europe, which offer several viable alternative forms of

human occupancy. But such environments are rare and in most of the world, as in Australia,

the environment is much more extreme and its control over human activity is enormous. In

the short term, people might attempt whatever they wished with regard to their environment,


5/9

but in the long term, natures plan would ensure that the environment won the battle and

forced a compromise out of its human occupants. Thus, man must choose wisely from the

array of possibilities offered to him by nature.

In his own words, Man is able to accelerate, slow or stop the progress of a countrys

(regions) development. But he should not, if he is wise, depart from directions as indicated

by the natural environment. He is like the traffic controller in a large city who alters the rate

but not the direction of progress.

Neo determinism is also known as Stop-and-Go determinism. As Griffith Taylors

philosophy can very vividly be explained by the role of a traffic controller.

Thus, man chooses but only from the range which nature presents him.

QUANTATIVE REVOLUTION AND THE GROWTH OF POSITIVIST METHODS

The radical transformation of spirit and purpose (Burton, 1963) that Anglo-American

geography experienced during the 1950s and 1960s following the widespread adoption of

both inferential statistical techniques and abstract models and theories is referred to as the

quantitative revolution. In the process of adoption, the dominance of an old idiographic

geography characterised by a focus on areal differentiation, was displaced by a new

nomothetic geography conducted as spatial science.

The movement towards quantification in geography had already began n the 1940s; it gained

momentum following the classic statements of Ackerman and Schaefer in favour of making

geography more theoretical and systematic in nature, it had reached its culmination between1957 to 1960 and was over by 1963, the year Burton wrote the paper. This led to the

development of positivist philosophy in geography which emphasises on the importance of

observation as the foundation for all (non-mathematical).

Positivism is usually identified with the school of logical positivism as it was elaborated by

the so called Vienna Circle in the 1920s. Logical positivism was intended to be a renewal of 2

closely related traditions in the philosophy of science: the British empiricism of John Locke

and David Hume and the continental positivism of August Comte. Comte defined positivism

as a scientific ideal in line with Lockes principles and believed that alongside the natural

sciences there should also be a science of social relationships that should be developed on thesame principles as the natural sciences.

However, critics maintain that positivism allows its view of the logic of science to influence

its conception of the content of science. Reality should not be oversimplified by laying down

rules as to how science should function without taking account of what actually happens

within the livelier research traditions.

At some point in the late 1960s or early 1970s, the grip of the quantitative revolution on the

discipline loosened.


6/9

HUMANISTIC APPROACH

Humanstic geography developed as a critique of positivism and the quantitative techniques in

geography. This approach seeks to put humans at the centre of geographic enquiry. It brought

an interest in the expressive and emotional engagement of art with places through its

emphasis on subjectivity and human experience. Geographers have drawn upon a wide rangeof humanist philosophies, which has led to a generic humanistic geography in addition to

versions based around essentialism, idealism, phenomenology and pragmatism. Despite this,

there are key similarities in terms of the reasoning behind the emergence in the 1970s of

humanistic geography; it was a response to what were seen as the dehumanizing effects ofboth positivism and structural marxism. Because humanistic geography emphasized

experience and human subjectivity, it tended towards idealism and voluntarism, and as a

result has been criticized, particularly by marxist, realist and structurationist theorists for

overplaying the freedom that individuals have to act

Theorists of poststructuralism would further suggest that the perception of human agency so

promoted in humanistic geography is a product of dominant discourse. Feminist geographers

have shown how these dominant discourses create an image of normal subjecthood that iswhite, male, bourgeois, heterosexual and able-bodied, an image that can only be maintained

as coherent through Although these critiques have meant that the influence of humanistic

geography per se has waned since the 1980s, many of its arguments are still key to current

debates in human geography the exclusion of all that is Other.

1.3SPATIAL ORGANISATION

Towards the mid eighteenth century, there was widespread dissatisfaction with the regional

approach and geography was also losing ground as a discipline in most US universities.

During this time, like many other disciplines, geography was dominated by the Euclideangeometry. However, after the Second World War , theoretical considerations on the relativity

of space came to occupy an important position in geography.

It was in this background that Schafers paper, aptly titled exceptionalism in geography

was published. According to Schafer, most sciences, including physics and economics deal

with unique phenomenon and geography could claim no special status on that account. He

made a strong case for geographers to focus on the formulation of laws governing the

SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION OF PHENOMENA on the earths surface and not the

phenomenon themselves that is the concern for geographers. This was considered essential

for preservation and continuance of geography as a discipline. This paper had posed achallenge to the concept of geography popularised by Hartshornes nature of geography

(1939). In response, in his monograph entitled perspectives on the nature of geography

(1959), he reasserted that geography is a discipline that seeks to describe and interpret the

variable character of the earths surface as the home of man and emphasised that the

disciplines main concern was to describe the variable character of areas as formed by

existing features in relationships.

There was , nevertheless , a perceptible shift in Hartshornes earlier position regarding the

centrality of regional synthesis in geography .Also, the movement towards new geography as

the science of spatial analysis started in a few major centres like University of Iowa,

University of Wisconsin at Madison, University of Washington ( Seattle) , University of


7/9

Lund in Sweden. Scheffers paper became very popular amongst a certain section of the

geographic community who applied his ideas in their research. Hagerstrands Time-Space

Geography emphasises that the individuals rely on space and time for the realisation of

particular projects. He also gave the concept of diffusion in space with the passage of time.

Locational theories given by Von Thunen, Losch, Isard described spatial aspects of economicactivity. The work of Walter Christaller was the first to make a significant contribution to

locational geography with his famous thesis Die Zentralen Orte in Suddeutschland. Also,

Hagett gave a model for the analysis of spatial systems which can be described through the

following diagrams.

For post modern geographers like Edward Soja (1996) space consists of socially constructed

worlds that are simultaneously material and representational. Soja introduce the concept of

THIRD SPACEwhich consists of an imagined space consisting of actual social and spatialpractices, thus putting another dimension of lived space to spatiality.

Fig 3:Trilectics of spatiality (Edward Soja, 1996)

Since the focus o this tradition is the spatiality of a particular phenomenon, it has developed a

huge arsenal of quantitative spatial analytical techniques like GIS , GPS , Remote Sensing

and other cartographic techniques and softwares.


8/9

The spatial tradition rose to dominate geography in the wake of Schaefers article and it

enjoyed dominance till about 1970s . It is commonly agreed that the spatial science school

threw open the windows of a hitherto introverted discipline. Disciplinary boundaries became

much more open, methods and theories were openly borrowed from geometry, physics, social

sciences , as geographers became involved in multi disciplinary research projects.

Still remains a very healthy and employable tradition in the field. It has however faced some

criticisms as well. Minshull (1970) observed that landscape was becoming a nuisance to some

geographers, that most of the models could only be applied to a flat featureless plain and

there was a danger that these generalisations could be mistaken for statements about reality

itself. Sack (1972) maintained that space, time and matter cannot be separated analytically in

a science concerned with providing explanations.

1.4AERIAL DIFFERNCIATION

P.Vidal de La Blache defines Region as a domain where many dissimilar beings, artificially

brought together have subsequently themselves to a common existence. Some scholars also

believe that the regional concept originated with possibilism. However it gained dominance

when, Alexander Von Humboldt and Carl Ritterthe twin founders of modern geography

became the original pioneers in this field, so that a host of German geographers in the 19th

century devoted a great deal of time in refining the concept. The Whittlesey Committee on

regional geography which drafted the document of regional geography published in the James

And Jones(194) described the concept of region as :-

Any segment or portion of the earths surface is a region if itis homogeneous in terms of such

an aereal grouping. Its homogenity is determined by criteria formulated for the purpose of

sorting from the whole range of earth phenomenon the items required to express or illuminate

a particular grouping, areally cohesive. So defined, a region is not an object, either self

determined or nature given. It is an intellectual concept, an entity for the purpose of thought,

created by the selection of certain features that are relevant to an areal interest or problem and

by disregard of all features that are considered to be irrelevant.

The Whittlesey Committee have identified a variety of different kinds of regions. Most

fundamental division is that between formal ( uniform) and functional ( nodal) regions.

Also, the GriggBunge debate becomes very important. Griggs paper on the Logic of

Regional Systems appeared in the Annals, A.A.G. James Bird has identified June 1966 as

the date representing the last straw, when the last idiographic bastion in geography was

overthrownwith destruction of the idea that locations could never be anything but unique.

Grigg maintained that all parts of the earths surface are unique and that classification and

regionalisation obscure this fundamental fact. He also added that all locations are unique by

definition, whereas location can be a property, it cannot be a differentiating characteristic.

Commenting on Griggs paper Bunge asserted that locationsare not unique and locations

are indeed general and they are comparable with the use of erms such as near , far ,

close, adjacent,etc.


9/9

In the end , it can be concluded that since the subject matter of geography is so vast that it is

possible to have more than one research methodology functioning at the same time . Thus it

an be said that geography is a multi pardaigmic discipline having many research

methodologies functioning at the same time , thus adding on to its already unique and special

character.

Paradigms and Exemplars

Documents

Transcript of Paradigms and Exemplars