In Geography Schaefer was in support of _______.

#ugcnet #geographicalthought #schaefer

24. Please note that Schaefer was vehemently criticising the Idea of Exceptionalism, not supporting it.

Then Who supported Exceptionalism in geography? Immanuel Kant and Richard Hartshorne.
It was Immanuel Kant who gave the idea of Exceptionalism in geography. Later, Hartshorne was the most popular supporter of this theme.

What is Exceptionalism?
Simply, Exceptionalism in geography argued that Geography is not like other social sciences and holds peculiar features. So it claimed that Geography should be treated differently from other streams of social sciences.

Then Schaefer?
Schaefer was an economist, not a geographer. He criticized above mentioned claims raised by Hartshorne who had presented it in his book, 'Nature of Geography'.

Schaefer made his criticisms with scientific base which soon became more popular than the theme of Exceptionalism. Schaefer called it as Hartshornean Orthodoxy.

Schaefer stood for scientific analysis of phenomena, which is based on particular laws. (Nomothetic approach)