Kant's Concept of Geography and its Relation to Recent Geographical Thought 9781487577612

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Kant's concept of geography AND ITS RELATION TO RECENT GEOGRAPHICAL THOUGHT

UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO DEPARTMENT OF GEOGRAPHY RESEARCH PUB LI CATIONS

1.

THE HYDROLOGIC CYCLE AND THE WISDOM OF GOD: A THEME IN GEOTELEOLOGY by Yi-Fu Tuan

2.

RESIDENTIAL WATER DEMAND AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT by Terence R. Lee

3.

THE LOCATION OF SERVICE TOWNS by John U. Marshall

4.

KANT'S CONCEPT OF GEOGRAPHY AND ITS RELATION TO RECENT GEOGRAPHICAL THOUGHT by J . A . May

Kant's concept of geography AND ITS RELATION TO RECENT GEOGRAPHICAL THOUGHT

J.

A. MAY

Published for the University of Toronto Department of Geography by University of Toronto Press

©

University of Toronto Department of Geography Published by University of Toronto Press, Toronto and Buffalo, 1970 Reprinted in 2018 Printed in Canada

ISBN 978-0-8020-3260-7 (paper)

The science of Geography •. • is, I think, quite as much as any other science a concern of the philosopher . STRABO There is a boundless advantage in a knowledge of the places in the world for philosophy. . • . ROGER BACON The revival of the science of geography . . • should create that unity of knowledge without which all learning remains only piece-work. IMMANUEL KANT High towers, and metaphysically-great men resembling them, round both of which there is commonly much wind, are not for me. My place is the fruitful bathos, the bottom-land, of experience . IMMANUEL KANT

Preface This work is a revised version of a doctoral dissertation presented to the School of Graduate Studies in the University of Toronto in December of 1967. It is the author's conviction that considerable benefit is to be derived from a detailed analysis and consideration of the thought of one of the great figures of the past, and from a comparison between that thought and contemporary thinking on some of the fundamental issues respecting the nature of geography. Kant is one of the great kaleidoscopes of Western thought. In the analytic section of this work, more attention is paid to the concept "spatial relations" as a basic concept of the nature of geography, since it appears to me that this concept and its implications have been inadequately analyzed by geographers. On the other hand, less attention is paid to such concepts of the nature of geography as "environmentalism" and "regionalism, " since these concepts have often been acutely analyzed and assessed by geographers themselves. Hence, I have only a few footnotes to add to our understanding of these concepts. I would like to take the opportunity to express my appreciation to those who have assisted in the writing and preparation of this study, especially my advisors on the original thesisProfessor J. M. O. Wheatley of the Department of Philosophy in the University of Toronto, and Dean George Tatham of York vii

University-to Professor Wheatley for a painstakingly thorough job of editing the original typescript that has contributed greatly to whatever clarity of thought and ease of presentation the work may possess; to Dean Tatham whose considerable knowledge of the history of geography has saved me at times from serious blunders or omissions. I owe debts of gratitude also to the following: to Professor Emil L. Fackenheim of the Department of Philosophy in the University of Toronto, to Mrs. Elizabeth Tonner of Toronto, and to Mrs. Eva Dawkins of Kamloops, British Columbia, for assistance in rendering Kant's sometimes intractable German into tolerable English; and to the editorial staff of the University of Toronto Department of Geography Research Publications series. This book has been published with the help of a grant from the Social Science Research Council of Canada, using funds provided by the Canada Council. A contribution toward cost of publication has also been made by the Publications Committee of the Canadian Association of Geographers. I am most grateful for this support. J. A. May Toronto March, 1970

Contents PREFACE

vii

FIGURES

xi

I. INTRODUCTION

3

II. PHILOSOPHY AND GEOGRAPHY, AN HISTORICAL

SKETCH

25

III. THE ORIGINS, DEVELOPMENT, AND INFLUENCE

OF KANT'S CONCEPT OF GEOGRAPHY IV. KANT'S CONCEPT OF GEOGRAPHY (1): GEOGRAPHY AS A SCIENCE

v.

KANT'S CONCEPT OF GEOGRAPHY (2): GEOGRAPHY IN RELATION TO THE EMPIRICAL SCIENCES, ANTHROPOLOGY AND HISTORY

51

84

107

VI. KANT•S CONCEPT OF GEOGRAPHY (3): PRAGMATIC AND TELEOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF GEOGRAPHY, AND THE PLACE OF GEOGRAPHY IN A 132 CLASSIFICATION OF THE SCIENCES

ix

VII. THE Lil\/IITS AND SCOPE OF CONTEMPORARY GEOGRAPHY VIII. CONTEMPORARY CONCEPTS OF THE NATURE OF GEOGRAPHY IX. THE PLACE OF GEOGRAPHY IN A CLASSIFICATION OF THE SCIENCES

x.

CONCLUSION

152

178

220 249

APPENDIX. A TRANSLATION OF THE INTRODUCTION TO KANT'S "PHYSISCHE GEOGRAPHIE" 255 BIBLIOGRAPHY

265

Figures 1. Kant's Classification of Sciences

148

2. The Fenneman-Taylor Classification of Sciences

237

3. The Hettner-Hartshorne Classification of Sciences

239

xi

Kant's concept of geography AND ITS RELATION TO RECENT GEOGRAPHICAL THOUGHT

I Introduction

KANT AND GEOGRAPHY

Immanuel Kant is the outstanding example in Western thought of a professional philosopher concerned with geography. He introduced the study of geography to Konigsberg University in 1756 and lectured on the subject regularly for forty years, until the year before his retirement in 1797. 1 This was many years before the first chair in geography-for Carl Ritter at Berlin in 1820-was created at a German university. Ritter held this chair until his death in 1859, when it was allowed to lapse because of declining interest in geography. A second chair in geography was not made available until 1871, at Leipzig for Oskar Peschel. Appointments at Halle, Konigsberg, and Strassburg, and in other countries, France, Italy, Russia, and England, followed in rapid succession. 2 Thus, Kant began 1sec Paul Gedan•s notes to Kant's "Physische Geographic," Gesammelte Schriften (hereinafter referred to as GS), IX, 509; and Erich Adickes, Kant als Naturforschcr ,

11 , 388.

-

2Alfred Hettner, Die Geographic: ihre Geschichte 1 ihr Wesen und ihre Methodcn , p . 447 .

3

to lecture on geography well over one hundred years before it became an established university discipline, although he was not the first to have taught a course in geography at a German university . Adickes3 points out that at Gottingen in 1754-55, Btisching had introduced courses on the globe and the political geography of Europe; and in the following year, J . M. Franz taught a course on the geography of North America . However, Btisching and Franz were important geographers of their day, not philosophers. For Konigsberg University in 1756, geography was something entirely new. Over the forty-year period that he lectured on geography, Kant gave his course forty-eight times. He lectured more often only on logic (54 ti mes) and metaphysics (49 ti mes). Next in order came moral philosophy (28 times), anthropology (24 times), and theoretical physics (20 times). 4 Thus, he devoted some seventy-two courses of lectures to the empirical sciences, geography and anthropology-a considerable portion of his teaching life. When he was appointed a professor in 1770, and his teaching load was drastically reduced from some twentyfive or thirty hours of lectures per week to approximately ten, his lectures became devoted almost exclusively to phiiosophical topics. Yet, he continued to lecture on geography until the end of his active teaching life . Kant's course of lectures on geography was not a commentary on a textbook prescribed by the university or the state, as was the custom in his day. As he makes quite clear in the early announcements of his courses, he organized his own course and collected his own material from a variety of sources. 5 As late as 1788, an official decree from von Zedlitz, the Minister of Education, specifically exempted Kant's course on physical geography from the customary regulations:

3 Adickes, Kant als Naturforscher, Il, 388 . 4Friedrich Paulsen, Immanuel Kant: His Ufe and Doctrine, pp. 57-58. 51n his "Entwurf und AnkUndigung eines Collegii der physischen Geographie, " GS, II, 3-10, Kant points out that no suitable textbook for the course was available, and that he had started at the very beginning of his academic career to collect material from a variety of sources for the purpose of presenting geography in special lectures (p. 4). See also GS, II , 25, where Kant announces that he will again lecture on geography "from my own essays"; and GS, II, 35, where he indicates he will lecture from "my own notes. "

4

The worst compendium is certainly better than none, and the professors may, if they are wise enough, improve upon the author as much as they can, but lecturing on dictated passages must be absolutely stopped. From this, Professor Kant and his lectures on physical geography are to be excepted, as it is well known that there is yet no suitable text-book in this subject. 6

Evidently, the subject held considerable personal interest for Kant. In fact, throughout his life and even in old age, his favourite reading for mental relaxation consisted of works on geography. 7 Although his course on physical geography was given only at the introductory, first-year university level, Kant obviously attached considerable importance to it, for he regarded geography as "the propaedeutic for knowledge of the world." 8 Thus, he regarded geography as providing preliminary and essential knowledge for more advanced work. The precise sense in which Kant thought of geography as a "propaedeutic, " however, remains to be determined. Kant provides us with an interesting geographical reason for his remaining at Konigsberg. Even before he had written the Critique of Pure Reason he was well known throughout Germany, and in later years could almost certainly have commanded any university appointment in philosophy in the country. In fact, pressure was put on him to accept appointments at Halle and Berlin. Kant, however, declined all offers to leave Konigsberg. Undoubtedly, one of his reasons for remaining was Konigsberg's ideal situation for gaining knowledge of man and of the world without having to travel. As a busy seaport, it had distinct advantages over an inland city. It was well situated for overseas trade, and for intercourse with different countries and with peoples of diverse languages and customs. 9 In addition, the Konigsberg of Kant's day was a very cosmopolitan city, since it contained sizeable segments of German, Scandinavian, Dutch, English, Polish, Russian, and other Slavic populations. 10

6Quotcd in Paulsen, Immanuel Kant, p. 60. 7willibald Klinke, Kant for Everyman, p. 22. B"Physische Geographic," GS, IX, 157. 9Anthropologie in pragmatischer Hinsicht (hereinafter referred to as "Anthropologie"), GS, VII, 120-121. lOJ. W. H. Stuckenberg, The Life of Immanuel Kant, pp. 2-4.

5

The foregoing biographical information indicates that geography was of considerable importance to Kant, not only academically but also personally. It was obviously more important to him than we would be led to suppose by Gerland's oft-repeated implication that Kant's concern with geography represented only an interest in empirical knowledge as necessary for his philosophical investigation of the whole of knowledge.11 It was undoubtedly more important than many philosophers have been prepared to admit. In fact, few philosophers have paid much attention to Kant's work on geography. Kuno Fischer,12 with his propensity to see Kant's philosophy as a doctrine of "historical development, 11 regarded the Physical Geography as a con tribution to the natural history of the earth. In support of this contention he quotes the following passage from the introduction to the Physical Geography: "It is true philosophy to trace the diverse forms of a thing through all its history. " Fischer draws attention to Kant's distinction between the development of things as natural history and the "customary description of nature, " although he contends that the latter "contents itself with artificially classifying things, with grouping their external attributes, and with describing what they are in their present state. 11 Undoubtedly, this applies to one Kantian interpretation of the concept "description of nature, 11 but Fischer ignores Kant's distinction between history and geography, and the sense in which geography as a "description of nature" differs from the "customary description of nature. 11 Paul Menzer, 13 in his brief consideration of Kant's work on geography, was primarily concerned with an exposition of Kant's various plans for a physical geography, as presented in his Entwurf und Anki.indigung eines Colle.gii der physischen Geographie, Nachricht von der Einrichtung seiner Vorlesungen in dem Winterhalbenjahre von 1765-1766, and in the introduction to the Physische Geographie. Menzer also draws attention to the close parallel between geography and anthropology, and to Kant's stress on the importance of geography for the practical conduct of life.

11 Georg Gerland, "Immanuel Kant, seine geographischen und anthropologischen Arbeiten," Kant-Studien, X (1905), 508-509. 12 A Critique of Kant, pp. 67-68. 13 Kants Lehre von der Entwicklung in Natur und Geschichte, pp. 76-82.

6

The outstanding authority on Kant's work in geography, however, is Erich Adickes. His detailed labours gave rise to three books and two substantial chapters in a fourth . 14 In the Untersuchungen, which was specially commissioned by the Prussian Academy of Sciences for its edition of Kant's works, Adickes is primarily concerned with a detailed analysis and comparison of some twenty manuscript copies of Kant's lectures on physical geography. A brief summary of Adickes' main findings will be given in chapter iii. The Ansichten is primarily concerned with an historical survey of what Kant included in his course on geography, its historical development, the sources of his material, and a survey of his other work that could be labelled geographical. The neu Kollegheft contains Adickes' suggestions for improving the official Rink edition of Kant's Physische Geographie; it is basically a supplement to the Untersuchungen. The chapters devoted to the Physische Geographie in Kant als Naturforscher are a summary of the essentials of the other three books. Adickes, however, was primarily concerned with technical and historical questions respecting Kant's work on geography, and especially with the course of lectures on the subject that he gave for forty years. He rarely concerned himself with Kant's meaning, or with the possible relations between geography and Kant's philosophy. Hardly any attention is paid to philosophical aspects of Kant's geography. Apparently, Adickes preferred to draw a sharp line between Kant's empirical work and his theoretical work. Note, for instance, his caustic condemnation of Gerland 1 sl5 attempt to find a connection between the introduction to the Physical Geography and the intrO