Współczesny humanizm i jego wpływ na przemiany w obrębie geografii

Abstract

Humanism is a new theoretical and methodological approach in modern human geography, which puts a premium on man as an existential and cognitive subject. Its philosophical background is to be found in phenomenology and existentialism. The principles and methodology of humanism exert a marked impact on objectives of geographical researches and basic geographical notions and categories. It not only offers the most profound model of man in the whole geographical tradition, but also modifies the meaning of such fundamental categories as space and environment. The principal geographical category of humanism is the ‘place’ regarded as a core of meaning. Owing to humanism geographers are able also to redefine the meaning of human environment. Furthermore, humanism became a theoretical basis of ‘new’ geography of culture and ‘cultural’ turn in geography.