What are the modern geography's questions? The role and development of modern georiafia

The word "geography" from the ancient Greek language is translated as "a description of the earth." This science, as is commonly believed, originated in ancient times. Previously, she performed several different tasks, rather than now. What are the modern geography's questions? What does she do and what problems does she solve? Let's try to figure this out.

Geography yesterday

Habitual natural phenomena, phenomena (such as rain, wind or earthquake) puzzled the ancient people. They could not explain their origin, and so they were afraid. Later people invented gods for themselves, which, they believed, were responsible for all these phenomena.

It is believed that the science of geography "invented" the ancient Greek scientist Eratosthenes in the third century BC. Antique geography has achieved a lot. In particular, numerous maps were drawn up, the coordinates of the points were determined, assumptions were made regarding the shape of the Earth and its internal structure, the first attempts were made to measure the parameters of our planet. The next jump in the development of geography occurred already in the Renaissance.

Eratosthenes, Herodotus, Claudius Ptolemy, Gerhard Mercator, Karl Ritter, Alexander Humboldt, Mikhail Lomonosov, Vladimir Vernadsky - all these names are written in gold letters in the history of geographical science.

What are the modern geography's questions? And what is its specificity as a science? This will be discussed later.

Geography today

Modern geography is the science of the distribution of natural, as well as socio-economic phenomena in space. She studies the relationship between nature and man, advises on how best to use the resources of our planet.

The development of modern geography takes place in close cooperation with other disciplines: physics, economics, chemistry, history, psychology and so on. And today it itself has turned into a complex and ramified system of sciences and applied industries.

In general, modern geography is divided into two large sections:

• Physical geography (studying natural processes and phenomena).
• Socio-economic geography (studying the population and economic activities of mankind).

What does modern geography do?

Geography, like any other science, is moving forward and developing. Nevertheless, it retained the results of the achievements of scientists of past eras. In particular, the principle of studying the processes from the point of view of cause-effect relationships, laid down by Ritter and Humboldt, can also be traced in modern geographic studies.

What are the modern geography's questions? If earlier she was looking for answers mainly on the question "where?", Today she is more interested in the problems "why" and "how?".

Today we can distinguish two main trends in the development of geographical science. The first is the ecologization of all its research. The second is that geography in a modern post-industrial society is becoming more practical. Its separate branch is gaining popularity - the so-called strategic geography. She is studying the properties of the geographical environment, as well as predicting their impact on society.

In modern theoretical geography, the most acute problems are caused by the following problems:

• The problem of a single object of study;
• The problem of the unity of geographical science;
• The problem of the philosophical foundations of geography;
• The problem of practicality of science and others.

Geographical science, in fact, has existed for about two and a half thousand years. But only today many scientists have a question: is it worth to single out this science in general? Does geography have a right to exist in modern realities? This issue remains controversial.

Such terms as "landscape", "geosystem", "geopolitics", "strategy", etc., are heard more often among modern geographers.

Finally…

The role of geography in the modern world is quite large. After all, in the 21st century, it views the Earth not just as the third planet from the Sun, but as a home, a refuge for seven billion people. And it is geography that deals with the problem of optimizing relations in the system "man-nature" more than other sciences today.

What are the modern geography's questions? Today she is looking for answers not only to her traditional question "where?". She also tries to explain "why?" And "how?", Teaches mankind to rationally use the gifts of nature.