The question is when did geography as a science arise. Geography: ancient and modern science

Recently I helped my son with an essay on the topic "History of Geography" and together with him I got "excellent" :) I think I can briefly and informatively explain how this science appeared.

The emergence of geography

In ancient times, geography was inseparable from medicine, history, and philosophy. It acquired its independence several centuries before the beginning of a new era, but by right considered one of the most ancient sciences. At different historical stages, the goals and content were not unchanged - today, somewhat different tasks are being solved.

For a long time, the tasks of science were reduced to a large extent to description of distant lands and phenomena. For many centuries this information has been accumulated, but the main task was to gradually paint a picture of the environment. We can say that for a long time this science was like an encyclopedia, combining a lot of various information.

"What?" and where?"- Key questions answered geography in antiquity. Actually, therefore, then it was not a science, since the questions that science answers are "why?" And How?". In our time, it fully explains various kinds of facts, puts forward theories and forms laws.

Geography as a science

Only a few centuries ago it became possible to study both phenomena and their very nature. Based on the basic laws of other sciences, it became possible to understand the complex patterns of the surrounding world. Therefore, only recently the task of science has become not a description, but study of the process of interaction between man and nature. Modern geography is not just an independent science, but a system of sciences in which 3 main areas are distinguished:

• physical geography- study of the nature of our planet;
• social geography- study of territorial organization;
• economic geography- study of the organization of the economic life of society.

The Earth has never been the subject of study of this science as a planet as a whole. It took many years to explore every corner, however, it became clear to scientists that they know practically nothing about the structure of the world. Then it began separate study of each element: air, sunlight, life and more. And then geography "stratified" into separate disciplines, each of which is busy studying its part of a single whole - geographical envelope.

Geography

science (more precisely, the system of natural and social sciences) that studies the functioning and evolution geographical envelope, interaction and distribution in space of its individual parts and components - in order to scientifically substantiate the territorial organization of society, the distribution of population and production, the efficient use of natural resources, the preservation of the human environment, and the creation of the foundations of a strategy for environmentally safe sustainable development of society. The word "geography" comes from the Greek. ge - ́ - "earth" and "grapho" - I write. The most important subject of geographical study is the processes of interaction between man and nature, patterns of placement and interaction of components geographical environment and their combinations on the local, regional, nat. (state), continental, oceanic, global levels. The complexity of the object of study led to the differentiation of a single geography into a number of specialized scientific disciplines, which gives reason to consider modern geography as a complex system of sciences, in which natural (physico-geographical), social (socio-geographical and economic-geographical) sciences, applied geographical sciences and geographic sciences that have an integral (boundary) character.
physical geography includes complex sciences about the geographical shell as a whole: geography (general physical geography), landscape science(regional physical geography), paleogeography(evolutionary geography). In the process of the long development of geography, private sciences have been formed about the components of the geographical envelope - geomorphology, geocryology, climatology and meteorology, hydrology(with division into land hydrology, oceanology, limnology),glaciology, soil geography, biogeography.
V socio-economic geography includes general sciences: social geography and economical geography, as well as geography of the world economy, regional Socio-Economic Geography, political geography. Private socio-geographical sciences: geography of industry, geography of agriculture, geography of transport, geography of population, geography of the service sector. The integral geographic sciences include cartography, regional studies, historical geography. The development of the system of geographical sciences led to the formation of applied geographical sciences and directions - medical geography, recreational geography, military geography and others. They also perform connecting functions between geography and other scientific disciplines. The desire to identify general geographical patterns in the development of all or many components of the geographic envelope, to model them led to the formation of a theoretical trend in geography.
Geography as a system of sciences was formed not by the convergence of isolated geographical sciences, but by the autonomous development of the once unified geography and its division into specialized scientific disciplines - according to components, their combinations, levels of research and degree of generalization, goals and practical needs. Therefore, all private geographic sciences, no matter how far they have diverged from each other, have retained the common features of the geographical approach (territoriality, complexity, concreteness, globality) and the common specific language of science - the map.
In the course of its development, geography was not isolated from other scientific disciplines. As an ideological science, it is closely connected with philosophy and history; in the study of the natural components of the geographic shell, the ties between geography and physics, chemistry, geology and biology were strengthened, and in the study of the sociosphere - with economics, sociology, demography, etc. In turn, geography enriches related sciences with its theory and methodology; there is a process of geographicalization of scientific knowledge, expressed, in particular, in the emergence at the junctions of geography with other sciences of such dynamically developing scientific areas as ecology, demogeography, ethnic geography, regional planning, regional economy.
The methodology of geographical research is a complex system, including: general scientific approaches and methods (mathematical, historical, ecological, modeling, systemic, etc.); specific scientific approaches and methods (geochemical, geophysical, paleogeographic, technical and economic, economic and statistical, sociological, etc.); working methods and operations for obtaining information (balance method; remote methods, including aerospace; laboratory methods, for example, spore-pollen analysis, radiocarbon method; questioning; sampling method, etc.); methods of empirical and theoretical generalization of information (indicative, evaluative, analogues, classifications, etc.); methods and techniques for storing and processing information (on electronic media, punched cards, etc.).
A special function of geography is the acquisition, generalization and dissemination of knowledge about our planet and the laws of its natural-historical development, about countries, regions, cities, localities and the peoples inhabiting them, about the history of the discovery and development of the world, about knowing it with the help of space means. An important aspect of human culture over the centuries has been geographical discoveries, which have not stopped until now. Geographical and cartographic knowledge is an indispensable element of general education; geography is taught in elementary and cf. schools all over the world.
Geography is one of the oldest sciences. In the process of development, its content, as well as the very concept of geographical discovery, changed several times. Over the centuries ch. the content of geography was the discovery and description of new lands and ocean expanses. The tendency to record individual phenomena on the Earth's surface has led to the formation of regional studies and regional approaches. At the same time, the desire to identify and explain the features of their similarities and differences, to combine them into similar categories, to classify, laid the foundations for a common, or systemic, geography. Already ancient Mediterranean civilization is characterized by fundamental achievements in geography. The initial attempts at a natural-scientific explanation of geographical phenomena belong to ancient Greek. the philosophers of the Milesian school Thales and Anaximander (6th century BC); Aristotle (fourth century BC) introduced the concept of the earth's sphericity; Eratosthenes (3rd-2nd centuries BC) quite accurately determined the circumference of the globe, formulated the concepts of "parallels" and "meridians", introduced the term "geography"; Strabo (1st century BC - 1st century AD) summarized regional knowledge in geography in 17 volumes; Ptolemy (2nd century AD) in his "Guide to Geography" laid the foundation for building a map of the Earth. In the Middle Ages, a significant role in the development of geography was played by the Arab scientists-encyclopedists Ibn Sina (Avicenna), Biruni, traveler . Epoch Great geographical discoveries expanded the horizons of scientific thinking and approved ideas about the integrity of the world. In the 17-18 centuries. along with the continuation of geographical discoveries and the description of the Earth, theoretical activity is progressively developing. B. Varenius in "General Geography" (1650) and I. Newton in "Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy" (1687) laid the foundations of physical thinking in geography. M.V. Lomonosov all R. 18th century was the first to express the idea of ​​the role of the time factor in the development of nature and introduced the term "economic geography" into science. A generalization of the data of field expeditions led the German naturalist A. Humboldt(1845–62) to the classification of the Earth's climates, substantiation of latitudinal zonality and vertical zonality; he became the forerunner of an integrated approach in geography.
In the 2nd floor. 19th century ideas have become widespread geographic determinism, who argued that geographical factors play a decisive role in the socio-economic development of peoples and countries. With increasing human impact on the environment, these ideas lose their appeal; now their echoes are preserved in environmentalism. At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. concepts geographic possibilism, proceeding from the recognition of the diversity of forms of human interaction with a homogeneous passive environment, and the teachings of A. Getner about geography as a "chorological science" that studies in the main. only the spatial relations of objects and phenomena on the earth's surface, without delving into the study of the inner essence of these phenomena and their development. At the same time, in the work of V.I. Vernadsky the planetary role of the anthropogenic factor was substantiated; he argued that the transformation biosphere under the influence of conscious human activity will lead to the formation noosphere. The development of geography in con. 19th–20th centuries associated with K. Ritter, P.P. Semyonov-Tyan-Shansky, A.I. Voeikova, F. Richthofen, D. N. Anuchin, V.V. Dokuchaeva, A. A. Grigorieva, L.S. Berga, S.V. Kalesnik, K.K. Markova, V. B. Sochava, V. N. Sukachev, N. N. Baransky, I.P. Gerasimov. The specifics of the development of geographical science in the 20th century. determined to a large extent by the traditions of nat. schools - such as the French school of human geography with its stable social orientation; a German school with a tradition of deep theoretical analysis, regional planning and geopolitics; Anglo-American and Swedish schools of theoretical geography and the widespread use of quantitative methods. The Russian geographical school was formed under the influence of the teachings of Dokuchaev on natural zones, Vernadsky on the role of living matter in the formation of the modern nature of the Earth and its evolutionary-stage development, Grigoriev on the geographical shell and its dynamic processes, Berg on the landscape structure of terrestrial nature, Baransky on the geographical division of labor as a spatial form of social division of labor and the objective nature of the formation of economic districts.
In con. 20th century symptoms of an ecological crisis appeared on Earth: drying up and erosional destruction of the territory, deforestation and desertification, depletion of mineral reserves, environmental pollution. The anthropogenic contribution to the turnover of carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, and sulfur has become equal to the natural one, and in some places began to prevail over it. A significant part of the land surface is irreversibly transformed by man. Growing in the world globalization Along with positive trends, it widens the gap between poor and rich countries, exacerbates old and gives rise to new global problems for mankind. All this poses corresponding tasks for geography: studying the dynamics of natural, socio-economic and geopolitical processes, forecasting global and regional socio-economic and political situations, developing recommendations for environmental protection, optimal design and functioning of natural and technical systems in order to improve the safety of human existence and the quality of life of people. A special role in this approach is played by ecology and the science of nature management, formed at the intersection of physical and socio-economic geography with the economy and technology.
Possessing a huge integration potential, geography brings together a variety of branches of knowledge and research methods in order to help solve the most important problem of our time - to ensure the sustainable socio-economic development of both all mankind and individuals, no matter where they live in the world.

Geography. Modern illustrated encyclopedia. - M.: Rosman. Under the editorship of prof. A. P. Gorkina. 2006 .

What ancient civilizations do you know?

The ancient civilizations include the Sumerians, Ancient Egypt, India, China. This also includes the civilizations of the Maya, Incas, Aztecs.

Questions and tasks

1. What made the people of the ancient world acquire geographical knowledge?

Knowledge about the Earth became necessary in connection with the introduction of irrigated agriculture, the development of trade, military campaigns and land conquest.

2. Where and when did geographical science originate? Who is considered its founder?

It is believed that geography originated in ancient Greece, and its founder is Homer.

3. What directions of development of geography developed in Ancient Greece?

In the geography of ancient Greece, three directions developed: a description of known territories and peoples (regional studies), an explanation of natural phenomena and processes (geography), determining the size of the Earth and creating maps (mathematical geography).

4. In which countries did geography develop most successfully in the Middle Ages?

In the Middle Ages, geography developed most successfully in the countries of the Arab East, Central Asia, India and China.

5. Sign the names of the continents and oceans on the contour map of the hemispheres. Compare your map with the map drawn by Eratosthenes. Determine which parts of the continents were known to the people of the Ancient World, and which continents were not known at all?

The people of the ancient world knew only parts of Eurasia and Africa. The continents of North and South America, Australia, Antarctica were not known to them.

6. Find on the Internet or other sources of information information about a scientist or traveler of the Ancient World (Middle Ages) and prepare a short message (presentation) about his contribution to the development of geographical knowledge.

Eratosthenes' contribution to geography

The merit of Eratosthenes also lies in the fact that he was the first to try to measure the size of the globe (namely, the length of its circumference). Of course, even then he believed that our Earth has the shape of a ball. As a result of the measurements, he got a fairly accurate number - 39,590 kilometers (the true length of the earth's equator is about 40,000 km)! How did Eratosthenes manage to calculate the size of the Earth so accurately? After all, he did not have precise instruments and devices, and, of course, he could not rise into space either. The main tool of the scientist was... the Sun! For his measurements, he took two cities: Alexandria and Siena. When the Sun was at its zenith over Siena, he calculated that in Alexandria the celestial body "lags behind" 1/50 of a full circle. Knowing the exact distance between the two cities, Eratosthenes multiplied it 50 times and got the length of the earth's circle!

In "Geography" (Geographika) in 3 books, Eratosthenes presented the first systematic scientific presentation of geography. He began by reviewing what had been achieved by Greek science in this area up to that point. Eratosthenes understood that Homer was a poet, so he opposed the interpretation of the Iliad and the Odyssey as a storehouse of geographical information. But he managed to appreciate the information of Pytheas. Created mathematical and physical geography. He also suggested that if you sail from Gibraltar to the west, you can swim to India (this position of Eratosthenes indirectly reached Columbus and suggested to him the idea of ​​\u200b\u200bhis journey). Eratosthenes supplied his work with a geographical map of the world, which, according to Strabo, was criticized by Hipparchus of Nicaea. In the treatise "On the Measurement of the Earth" on the basis of the known distance between Alexandria and Syene (the modern city of Aswan), as well as the difference in the angle of incidence of the sun's rays in both areas, Eratosthenes calculated the length of the Equator (total: 252 thousand stages, that is, approximately 39,690 km, calculation with minimal error, since the true length of the equator is 40,120 km).

Geography (translated from Greek - "description of the earth") is a science that originated at the dawn of the development of human civilization. Its origins go back much further than, for example, physics, chemistry, biology, geology and many other sciences. But at different stages of a long historical path, the content and goals of geography did not remain unchanged. That is why we say that geography is an ancient and at the same time young science: today it solves completely different problems than in the past.

For many centuries it was a descriptive-cognitive science, the tasks of which were reduced to the discovery and description of previously unknown lands. Geography has accumulated facts for centuries; its main task was to recreate, step by step, a picture of the surface of the globe, i.e. apply and describe the coasts of continents and islands, mountains, rivers, lakes, etc. For a long time, geography was a kind of encyclopedic collection of a wide variety of information and answered the questions “where?” and what?" — i.e. indicated the location of various objects on the surface of the Earth. Strictly speaking, it was not yet a science in the full sense of the word, for science must answer the questions “how?” and why?". Real science explains facts, formulates laws, has its own theory.

One should not, of course, think that in the past there were only collectors of facts, among them were outstanding thinkers. Already in ancient times, people tried to explain floods, origins and currents and many other geographical phenomena. But the general level of science was such that scientists could not experimentally investigate the observed phenomena and they had to guess about their essence and origin, relying on their intuition or fantasy.

Only towards the end of the last century, geography was able to rely on the basic laws of physics, chemistry and biology in order to begin to study the complex patterns that operate in the close interweaving of natural phenomena on the earth's surface. As for , it began to acquire a truly scientific character only by adopting the laws of classical political economy.

Thus, only during the last century did geography begin to transform from a descriptive (“collective”) discipline into a theoretical science; in fact, it began to revive and acquire new content.

Modern geography is a complex branched system, or a "family" of sciences - natural (physical-geographical) and social (economic-geographical), connected by a common origin and common goals. One of the most important tasks of modern geography is the study of the processes of interaction between nature and society in order to scientifically substantiate the rational use of natural resources and the preservation of favorable conditions for human life on our planet.

The past of geography, seen as the history of ideas and not merely of travel, is also no less eventful than the history of any other science. In the history of geography, periods of rise and stagnation, abrupt changes and crises alternate. This story is full of heated debates, sharp ideological struggle and sometimes genuine drama. To defend new ideas required no less courage and heroism than to set sail to unknown shores.

Every schoolchild knows the names of the creators of mechanics, astronomy, chemistry and other sciences. Who has not heard of N. Copernicus, I. Newton, C. Darwin, D.I. Mendeleev, A. Einstein? But not every educated person knows, for example, the names of one of the founders of Russian theoretical geography, V.N. Tatishchev (1686-1750) or K.I. Arseniev (1789-1865), who stood at the origins of economic geography in Russia.

Where and when did geography first appear? and got the best answer

Answer from LENUSka[guru]
Geography (Greek land description)
Traditionally, geography was considered a science that studies the surface of our planet. The discovery and exploration of this surface began at the earliest stage of civilization.
Geography arose in ancient times in connection with the practical activities of people - hunting, fishing, nomadic cattle breeding, primitive agriculture. The range of factual knowledge of primitive man was determined by the nature of his activity and the immediate natural environment. The ability to navigate in space is closely related to observation.
For the primitive communal system and the slave-owning states, the tasks of geography boiled down to expanding their spatial horizons. A person's worldview was formed in the space of their residence. Primary geographic motifs were represented by existential geography, which has survived to this day, but has lost its position in scientific geography. It was based on the concept of "place" or topos (from Greek - place, piece of land), ideas about good and bad places, good and bad hunting, friendly and bad people.
Geography, like all other sciences of the ancient world, developed initially within philosophy. Philosophers considered the world as a natural unity, and all human activities as one of the manifestations of things, some speculative ideas (about the sphericity of the Earth and its spheres, the dependence of man on nature), which “illuminated” the path of development of geography for many centuries. A unique method of empirical generalizations and transmission of geoinformation has also emerged - cartographic.
The greatest success was achieved by the ancient Greeks, who were able to use the method of abstraction to operate not only with empirical data, but also with their ideal images (models), which allowed the emergence of scientific knowledge in Ancient Greece.
The oldest map (on a clay tablet) is known from 3800 BC. e.
The development of navigation and trade led to the appearance of the first geographical descriptions. They were called peripluses and periegeses. The first described the coast and were the prototype of modern sailing directions. The second ones are land areas and were the initial form of regional descriptions. The authors of such descriptions were called logographers. A well-known logographer was Hecataeus of Miletus (546-480 BC), who summarized the periples and periegeses and compiled a description of all known countries.
Herodotus (485-425 BC) gives a complete description of the world known to the Greeks.
Eudoxus of Cnidus (c. 480-355 BC) substantiated the idea of ​​climatic zones. He was the first to use the gnomon to determine the latitudinal position of geographical objects.
In the writings of Aristotle (384-322 BC), the world around man has four primary elements: fire, air, water and earth. The source of motion is the ether that composes the sky. This was already a component geography approach. Combinations of these elements form the spheres: the outer celestial, the sphere of fire (upper atmosphere), the lower (air), the sphere of water and earth (in the center). Thus, he recognized the idea of ​​the sphericity of the Earth. Aristotle also systematized the views of his predecessors regarding thermal zones.
Eratosthenes of Cyrene (276-194 BC), first used the term "latitude" and "longitude" and when building a map, used 7 parallels and meridians perpendicular to them. And his work "Geographical Notes" was the first to mention the term "geography" (instead of periples and periegeses).
During the heyday of the Roman Empire (1st-2nd centuries AD), geographic descriptions of the regional plan, often associated with history, prevailed. The largest works belong to Strabo, a Greek from Amasia (64 BC - 23 AD). He wrote "Geography" in 17 books. Strabo was not known in the West in the Middle Ages. "Geography" appeared in print in 1472, first in a Latin translation made from a bad manuscript. The first edition of the Greek text appeared in 1516 with Aldas Manutius (on the basis of a bad manuscript).
Claudius Ptolemy (90-160) the last of the great scientists of antiquity who paid attention to geographical problems
Horror!!

Answer from Eerik Tolepbergen[active]
in the middle of the 15th, 16th centuries... when the great geographic discoveries began.... and so, it has existed since ancient times!...

Answer from Elena[guru]
In the IV century. BC e. - V c. n. e. ancient scientists-encyclopedists tried to create a theory about the origin and structure of the surrounding world, to depict the countries known to them in the form of drawings. The results of these studies were the speculative idea of ​​the Earth as a ball (Aristotle), the creation of maps and plans, the determination of geographical coordinates, the introduction of parallels and meridians, cartographic projections. Crates of Mallus, a Stoic philosopher, studied the structure of the globe and created a model of the globe, suggested how the weather conditions of the northern and southern hemispheres should correlate.
"Geography" in 8 volumes of Claudius Ptolemy contained information about more than 8000 geographical names and coordinates of almost 400 points. Eratosthenes of Cyrene for the first time measured the meridian arc and estimated the size of the Earth, he owns the term "geography" (land description). Strabo was the founder of regional studies, geomorphology and paleogeography. In the works of Aristotle, the foundations of hydrology, meteorology, oceanology are outlined, and the division of geographical sciences is outlined.
It is generally accepted that the foundations of modern geography were laid by Alexander von Humboldt.