[Solved] Who were the first to use the word Geography? (2024)

Comprehension

Geography as a discipline is focused on understanding the relationship between Man and Nature. It is built on experiences of successive generations. The history of geography is basically concerned with the development of human consciousness about the possibilities and limitations that nature offers for human growth. The word geography was first used by the Greek scholar Eratosthenes in the third century. Hartshorne said that Geography provides rational description of the earths surface above and below depending on the progress in technology. The study of man is the realm of humanities, where as science focused on the study of nature. Geography studies them simultaneously.
However geography as a university level discipline started only in the ninetenth century. Humboldt and Ritter demonstrated the usefulness of Geography as an universal science. After this period many scholars like Ratzel and Richtofen in Germany, Blache and Reclus in France projected it as an integrated study. Man. Nature relationship, hormony with nature led to concepts of Determination and possibilism, however Kant tried to address this confusion to a certain extent. With the emergence of different schools of thought Dualism and Dichotomies in Geography like general versus regional - physical versus human - Historical versus contemporary - Nodal versus regional concepts developed, and prevailed. The advent of quantitative revolution had further diversified the discipline. Paradigm. systems approach and models in geography became significant aspects of modern geographic thought. Paradigm proposed by Kuhn had references on areal differentiation, exceptionalism, spatial analysis. Models in Geography made significant progress. Modern Themes in Geographic thought like positivism, pragmatism, functionalism etc work introduced.