地理学方法论演变与价值判断

主观和客观是地理学方法论研究的一对重要范畴。价值判断是主客观问题争论的焦点。外在的科学或哲学理论和方法论等因素为客观范畴,地理学家的价值判断、目的等方面的因素为主观范畴。客观层面的分析表明:专业化和交叉化并行的整体科学发展特征,以及科学哲学理论发展多元化的趋势强烈影响了地理学方法论;交叉化的倾向使二战以后的地理学频繁地向其它学科借鉴理论和吸取方法,从而在范围上拓展了地理学方法论;而科学哲学理论从范式、研究纲领向多元主义的演替路径使地理学方法论也经历了单一范式向多元主义发展的过程;科学社会学理论的发展使地理学家深切认识到制度、社会文化背景和语言修辞对地理学的强烈影响。主观层面的分析表明:研究者不可能摆脱他的价值判断,价值判断也不可能"中立"于研究对象;在处理价值判断与研究对象之间关系时,研究者要持有审慎的态度和逻辑严整性的原则。在科学研究的目的论上,研究者最终应该具有一种人本主义的"自向性",即从认识研究对象回复到认识自身。从客观和主观结合的角度看,方法论是科学发展的一般规则与研究者个性和目的相结合的产物。

The geographical methodology between subjectivity and objectivity

The subjectivity and objectivity are an important pair of category of the geographical methodology, and the problem about them focuses on whether scholars should introduce their values into the process of scientific study. This paper defines the values and purposes of geographers as subjective things, and the external scientific or philosophical theories as objective things for geography. According to analysis of the category of objectivity, we firstly show that there is a kind of features cross-paralleled on specialization and interdisciplination in the course of scientific development. Secondly, the theoretical pluralism of the scientific philosophy have strongly influenced the geographical methodology: the frequent interdisciplinary researches after World War II have helped us to expand the scope of the geographical thoughts and contents; and with the theoretical evolvement of the scientific philosophy from Kuhn's Paradigm to Lakatos's Research Programs to Feyerabend's theory of "Anything goes", the geographical methodology has undergone the process from a single paradigm to the pluralism. Finally, the theories of sociology of scientific knowledge make many geographers feel that geographical knowledge often develops under the special social and cultural context so that there is not methodological consensus, and geography is reshaped by rhetoric and discourse. According to analysis of the category of subjectivity, we intend to indicate that the researchers can not break away from and get rid of his value judgments, and their value can not be "neutral" in the study. For the value judgments in the course of research, scholars should be wary of it and hold the principle of strict and integrated logic. As for the teleology, the destination of the whole study lies in "return to self" like humanism, that is from the subject back to the awareness for us. In short, in combination of subjectivity with objectivity, the methodology, including geographical methodology, is the product of interaction between the general rule of scientific and philosophical development and the values and purposes of the scholar himself or herself.