Dualism and Dichotomy

Let’s start with a fundamental idea:
Human knowledge is not static. It evolves—shaped by society, culture, climate, peer interaction, and even geographical conditions.

🧠 Imagine your brain as a library. Over time, different societal influences bring in new books, rearrange shelves, and even create new sections. In the academic library of geography, this reshuffling and branching is what we call Dualism and Dichotomy.

What is Dualism? What is Dichotomy?

Let’s define these two terms clearly:

Dualism is about branching—when a single subject starts expanding into various subfields.

And what about dichotomy?

Dichotomy, on the other hand, is about division—specifically contrasting or conflicting views or areas within the discipline.

🧭 Both these processes have helped geography grow:

• Horizontally: By expanding into new subfields like climatology, population geography, etc.
• Vertically: By deepening understanding through internal debates and refined perspectives.

Historical Roots of the Debate

The seeds of dualism and dichotomy were sown in Ancient Greece:

• Herodotus: Described people and their surroundings — an early form of human geography.
• Strabo: Focused on regional description.
• Ptolemy: Stressed mathematical geography — early scientific geography.

➡️ They represented the Inductive vs Deductive divide:

• Inductive: Start from observations, build theory.
• Deductive: Start from theory, test it with observations.

But the formal debate began with Bernhard Varenius, who proposed:

• General Geography (universal laws)
• Regional Geography (specific to areas)

🎯 This was not a petty academic quarrel—it was a serious philosophical issue about how to understand the Earth: broadly or in detail?

Why Does Dualism/Dichotomy Matter?

You may ask: Why care about all this? Here is why:

• It helps simplify the complexity of geography.
• It enables us to better understand the man-environment relationship—which is the central concern of Human Geography.

💡 Key Point: These divisions are not oppositions; they are discourses—a set of views and counterviews that evolve together.

How Do We Analyze Dualism and Dichotomies?

There are three major lenses:

• Content: What is being studied?
• Method: How is it being studied?
• Approach: With what purpose or philosophy?

🔍 For example: To study climate—

• Early geographers used descriptive methods.
• Later, scholars like Koeppen and Thornthwaite introduced mathematical classification systems.

These represent methodological dichotomies.

Major Examples of Dichotomy

Let’s look at some important types of dualism and dichotomies in Geography:

Dualism/Dichotomy	Description
Physical vs Human Geography	Focus on nature vs focus on society
General vs Regional Geography	Universal laws vs local specifics
Historical vs Contemporary	Past patterns vs present realities
Deterministic vs Possibilistic	Nature controls humans vs humans adapt creatively

📌 Remember: In dualism, one branch may be part of the other (like climatology under physical geography). But dichotomy represents contrasting frameworks (like physical vs human geography).

➡️ Hence, Dichotomy is a subset of Dualism.

Geography as a Chorographic or Chorologic Science

🗺️ Chorology = Study of areal differentiation (how different parts of the Earth vary).

This idea came from Strabo, who said a geographer’s job is to describe parts of the Earth—especially how human activities vary from region to region.

In modern times:

• Hartshorne emphasized this in The Nature of Geography.
• Vidal de Lablache argued that man lives in specific regions, not the whole Earth—so study must be area-based.

🎯 This makes geography a chorographic science—interested in what happens where and why.

Dichotomy Between Functional and Formal Geography

Now we come to a particularly important dichotomy:

Functional Geography

• Based on function and interaction.
• Example: A city and its hinterland (area of influence).
• Focuses on networks, accessibility, flow, and spatial interaction.
• Introduced the idea of “plastic space”—space is not static but shaped by economics, technology, etc.

📦 Think of Amazon’s delivery network—it’s not about straight-line distances, but cost, time, and interaction.

Formal Geography

• Based on uniformity—regions with common traits (climate, soil, land use).
• A discrete distribution based on defined criteria.

🧱 Think of a brick wall—each brick is similar. That’s a formal region.

➡️ Functional regions are like organisms (dynamic, interdependent), while formal regions are like mosaics (static, homogeneous).

Final Reflection: Dichotomies are Not Conflicts

As P.E. James rightly pointed out:

• These dichotomies (e.g., deductive vs inductive, topical vs regional) are mutually exclusive, but not contradictory.
• They serve different purposes and broaden our understanding.

✅ Conclusion

So, to sum up:

• Dualism shows how geography branches out.
• Dichotomy reflects internal debates or opposing methods.
• Both are necessary, productive, and help in evolving the discipline.
• They are tools—not barriers—to a deeper understanding of the man-environment relationship.