Epistemological Problems in Human Geography An Overview and a preliminary Islamic Evaluation

Abstract

Introduction
Geography is the study of the earth's surface as the space withm which the
human population lives. The internal logic of this study has tended to split
geography into two parts: physical and human. The identity of physical
geography is the more discernible part, as it is concerned with the study, over
time, of the characters, processes, and distribution of inanimate phenomena
in the space accessible to human beings and their instruments. Human
geography, on the other hand, is not so clearly defined, as it deals with problems
which are, in the final analysis, multidisciplinary or extradisciplinary in
character. Thus, although human geography can be consistently defined as that
part of the social sciences which studies people solely in relation to space and
place, this study can range from synthesizing the relationship between human
societies and the Earth's surface (in which people-environment relations are
emphasized) to that of an all-encompassing coverage of all aspects of geography
not directly concerned with the physical environment.
One corollary of such an all-encompassing coverage is the multiplicity of
approaches in human geography. As geographers probe further into the truth
of the human phenomena, be it the interrelationship of people (individually
or as groups) in their physical or social environment, the spatial and temporal
distribution of human creations, or the organization of society and social processes,
and as they draw increasingly from extraneous disciplines in the course
of such probing, it has become more and more obvious that it is now impossible
to forge and maintain a singular human geography.
For instance, an economic geographer trying to understand the unequal
distribution of incomes among population groups in different places will be ...