地理学的主要任务与研究方法——从整个科学体系的视角看地理科学的发展

所有科学的主要任务都是建立数学模型,如果地理学想要发展成为一门标准科学——而不是走"例外主义"的道路,根据简单的逻辑法则可以判断,地理学的主要任务也是建立数学模型。现代科学研究的方法包括数学理论、实验室实验和计算机模拟,其中数学方法和模拟实验必将是地理学研究的主要方法;至于实验室实验,可用调查取证进行有限度的补充。未来地理研究的数学规范化和定量分析主要借助后现代数学工具(分形几何学和混沌数学等),而模拟实验则需要倚重仿生数学理论和模型。

Main Tasks and Methods of Geography

Geography as a scientific branch is reviewed in the whole scientific perspective in this paper, by comparing the discipline with physics and economics, and other related subjects. It is hard to answer what is this thing called science, but we know what science does. As J von Neumann (1961) so cogently observed: "The sciences do not try to explain, they hardly even try to interpret, they mainly make (mathematical) models." As for the function of mathematical models, Marc Kac (1969) once pointed out in Science: "The main role of (mathematical) models is not so much to explain or predict-although these are the main functions of science-as to polarize thinking and to pose sharp questions." Synthesizing the two pieces of logion, we can drawn some conclusions as follows: 1) The main functions of science are to explain or predict. 2) The main task of science is to make models. 3) The main role of models is to explain or predict (the world) and to polarize thinking and to pose sharp questions. Now it is understood that if geography is regarded as a kind of science, which make mathematical models as expected, it is also supposed to make models. Otherwise, if the main task of geography is not to make models, the subject can not be considered to be a kind of science. The traditional scientific methods include the mathematization of world picture and experience and experiment. Nowadays, computer simulations are also an important method, or the third method, used to scientific research. Among the three methods, namely, mathematical theory, experiment, and computer simulation, the first and the third one will be very significant for future geography department. The two main elements of this scientific method are the use of mathematics and measurement to give precise determinations of how a geographical system and its parts work, and the use of observation, and where necessary, computer simulations, to gain understanding of geographical world. However, the mathematics is not the traditional mathematical theories but the postmodern mathematics of fractals and chaos, and the computer simulations are based on the rising ’bionic’ scientific theories such as cellular automata (CA), genetic algorithms (GA), artificial neural nets (ANN), and artificial life (A-life), etc. Among all the so-called bionic scientific theories, CA gives a tool of prominence so that it looks like a paradigm for the 21st century geography.