Forms of Life and Geographical Method

Bibliographic Data

ID4488271
AuthorsMichael R Curry, Michael Curry (0000-0002-9155-5006, corresponding author)
Year1989
Volume79
Issue3
Pages280
Publication date1989-07-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueGeographical Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0016-7428 • E-ISSN: 1931-0846
PublisherJSTOR (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/215573
OpenAlexW2334181017
LanguageEN
Citations received12

Form of life, like culture, is a term that is used both colloquially and technically. During the twentieth century, the term has partially defied a shift to an exclusively technical meaning. Wittgenstein's use of the term is especially significant because it shares intellectual roots with work by the geographer Vidal de la Blache. Wittgenstein implies different conclusions about the possibility of developing a systematic social science that can answer important questions. His critique is relevant to recent innovations in geography. W AY or form of is a term encountered almost everywhere. It is used on the evening news (The American way of is being threatened), in advertising (Fishing is a way of life), and in academic discourse. Yet in academic work the concept does not always receive the attention accorded other, similar concepts. Several years ago, an etymological dictionary entitled Keywords at- tempted to chronicle change in society by looking at alterations in the use of various words.1 For example, the word society once implied a set of concrete relationships, but its current meaning is highly technical, referring to an abstract set of relationships. usual way to think about these changes in ideas is to interpret them as a result of a progressive rationalization, a process of clarification through which they become more abstract and technical. However, in Keywords and other studies, Raymond Williams offers another perspective: the changes in referents of a series of terms provide important insights into alterations of European society.2 In these works he offers an implicit critique of progressivist theories of the development of ideas and replaces them with a sociologically oriented approach. It is striking that he refers to changes in the elements of human society by noting their relation- ships with human ways of but never once asks, What is a way of life? He assumes that everyone knows the answer. This same position may be observed in the classic Culture: Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions by Alfred L. Kroeber and Clyde Kluck- hohn. They state that although the proposition A culture is a distinctive way of life would be incomplete to most anthropologists, few would reject the statement outright. Kroeber and Kluckhohn list six types of definitions

Historical Geography and Geographical Thought

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