Idealism and Realism

Before we dive into these philosophies, understand one thing:
In Human Geography, how we view “reality” shapes how we study human actions and interpret the world.
Different philosophical paradigms offer different answers to a basic question:
“Is reality something outside of us or something within our minds?”

Today, we’ll cover two major views:

• Idealism
• Realism

Idealism

🎯 Core Idea:
Reality is mental — it exists in the mind. It is mind-dependent.

Now, what does this mean?

Imagine you’re wearing colored glasses — red, green, blue.
Whichever color you wear, your entire world appears in that shade.
Idealism says something similar:
We don’t access reality directly. Instead, we experience the world through the ideas and mental constructions inside our mind.

Essence of Idealistic Philosophy

• Mental activity has a life of its own; it is not controlled by material things like stones, rivers, or trees.
• We know the world only indirectly — through our ideas about it, not by observing raw material reality.
• All knowledge is based on an individual’s subjective experience — how a person perceives and constructs the world mentally.

Thus, knowledge is not “out there”; it is “inside” each human being’s mind.

Guelke’s Contribution

In Geography, the most famous advocate of idealism is Leonard Guelke.

Guelke argued:

• We have developed methods to enter the minds of others —
  That is, we try to think their thoughts, understand their expectations, and justify their actions.
• Through this, we can better understand human intentions and how they shape the Earth.

Example:
When studying why farmers choose a certain cropping pattern, an idealist geographer would not just look at soil and climate data.
They would enter the farmer’s mind — to understand his fears, traditions, ambitions, etc., because these mental constructs guide action.

Social Science vs. Natural Science

Idealism says:

• Social sciences (like history, geography) and natural sciences (like physics, chemistry) are fundamentally different.
• Human actions are shaped by rational thought — unlike rocks or rivers, humans think before acting.

Thus, history and geography require a different method of study — based on understanding human thinking.

Verstehen

The method idealists use is called Verstehen — a German word meaning understanding.

It means:

• We reconstruct human activity mentally.
• We try to understand the logic behind someone’s actions.

Real-world analogy:
If you study why Gandhiji started the Dandi March, you don’t just record “He walked to Dandi.”
You reconstruct his thinking: his strategy, the symbolism of salt, the psychology of mass movement.

Against Positivism

Idealism rejects the positivist (nomothetic) approach, which seeks general laws.

Idealists argue:

• Each human action is unique, based on individual thought processes.
• You cannot generalize human behavior the way you generalize laws of physics.

Idealism in Geography

Geographers, therefore:

• Focus on activities that result from rational human decisions.
• Example: Growing crops, building houses, exploiting resources — all these are deliberate, thought-out actions.

Thus, using Verstehen, geographers rethink human actions to understand why and how people have shaped landscapes.

Realism

Now, moving to Realism, which is almost the opposite of Idealism.

🎯 Core Idea:
Reality exists independently of the mind.
Whether or not you believe in it, reality is out there.

Example:
Even if someone believes Earth is flat, the Earth remains round.
Reality is objective — it doesn’t change based on individual thoughts.

Essence of Realistic Philosophy

• Facts speak for themselves.
• Explanation should be logical and inductive (based on observation and evidence).
• Realism supports the use of theories and models in explaining geographical phenomena.

Thus, realism provides a systematic, evidence-based method for studying the world.

Relation with Positivism

Realism is very close to positivism — both believe in objectivity.

However, their methodologies differ:

• Positivism often seeks universal laws based on direct observations.
• Realism accepts that there are hidden structures behind observable facts, which we can discover using empirical research and rational thinking.

Historical Background

• In ancient philosophy, Platonic-Socratic Realism opposed Nominalism — arguing that universal ideas (like “justice,” “beauty”) have a real existence.
• In the modern context, Realism is used to oppose Idealism — it emphasizes that the world is real and independent of human mind.

Unique Standpoint

Unlike Naturalism or Positivism, Realism holds that:

• Human sciences are also empirically based rational enterprises.
• But, they seek to explain not just surface-level observations, but also the hidden structures behind them.

Example:
Suppose two villages are suffering drought.

• Positivism might measure rainfall data and drought statistics.
• Realism would go deeper — studying institutional structures, water distribution systems, and power relations to explain why some farmers suffered more than others.

To summarise in one line:

“Idealism says the world is constructed inside the mind. Realism says the world exists whether we construct it or not.”