Research resource review: Science,Philosophy and Physical Geography

It could be argued that physical geography, as a scientific discipline, has a strong tradition of being ‘critical’. Whether being critical is defined as a formal philosophical paradigm such as critical rationalism or critical realism, or whether it is simply defined as a disposition of scepticism toward statements about environmental phenomena, physical geographers are already a critical lot. However, while the critical tradition in physical geography has deep roots, it has not often been formally articulated.

As the values embedded within the practice of environmental science are increasingly politicized, there is a strong need to articulate and reflect on how environmental science is performative of particular problem framings and world-views. By linking scientific practices more explicitly to values in practice, perhaps a more democratic science might be imagined and pursued.

In Science, Philosophy and Physical Geography (second edition), Rob Inkpen and Graham Wilson provide a systematic treatment of the philosophical choices and implications involved in physical geographical practice. Writing for an audience of senior undergraduates, graduates and researchers, Inkpen and Wilson argue that philosophy is imbricated in all environmental scientific work, and they attempt to ‘make some of this underlying philosophical basis visible’ (p. xi). This second edition expands significantly on the first edition by Inkpen (2005), updating existing chapters and adding new ones on ‘The Field’ and ‘Modelling’, along with a better balance of examples drawn from across physical geography (notably absent, however, is climatology).

The book is primarily framed as a pedagogical and reference resource, but its prospective use extends directly into the realm of research practice. Readers are invited to consider and respond to a number of overarching questions:

What is the reality that physical geographers think they study?

The book proceeds through 10 chapters. Chapter 1 frames up three ways in which the practice of science relates to the real world. Progressive change embodies an incremental and truth-seeking ethic, where knowledge accumulates and better represents the world over time. Thinking about paradigms and norms of good or valuable scholarship is a way of understanding science as a social practice, shaped by social relationships, patterns and trends. Thinking about research programmes further allows us to think about the productive ‘frontiers’ of research as a basis by which paradigms change over time. Despite disciplinary flux in physical geography over the past century, the authors offer that physical geographers have historically shared (1) an interest in universal explanation, (2) an understanding of stability and change in environmental systems, and (3) a commitment to the empirical as a mode of knowledge production. Chapter 2 explores the nature of theory and its relationship to the world through a critical comparison of logical positivism, critical rationalism, critical realism and pragmatism as philosophical projects. The key tenets, commitments and implications of the projects are discussed (with examples), and the practices of induction and deduction are framed as elements within a larger dialogue with reality. Chapter 3 presents ‘entities’ as the conceptual building blocks from which theories are tested, and outlines principles and issues arising with classifying entities to derive knowledge from them. Entities are bounded, measured, classified and explained by human researchers with particular spatiotemporal preferences and framing contexts. Chapter 4 outlines and illustrates a range of useful concepts for constructing and interpreting causation in physical geography – necessary and sufficient conditions; deductive, inductive and abductive reasoning; and how researchers choose to include/exclude ‘context’ in their research.

Chapter 5 shifts from theory to practice, by exploring the choices involved in ‘probing reality’, where research is understood as an interactive dialogue with the external world. This dialogue is framed by the variables included and excluded in the analysis, by the theory used to frame and interpret measurements, by deploying multiple methods, and by developing and testing multiple working hypotheses. Chapter 6 discusses the nature/s of ‘the field’ in physical geography, and the ways in which practical elements can frame and guide (and perhaps bias) interpretation of data. The field is conceptualized as ‘the arena in which the theory is assessed to see whether it operates as expected’ (p. 95), which includes laboratory experiments and modelling as well as outdoor ‘field work’.

Chapter 7 brings discussion from the field to analysis, and interrogates the proposition that systems thinking is ‘The’ framework for physical geography, by clarifying the commitments of a systems approach and defining its explanatory character (and drawbacks). Key aspects of systems thinking are how they enable investigation of self-organizing processes such as feedbacks and equilibrium. Chapter 8 discusses equilibrium as a hegemonic explanatory framework within physical geography, and it is critically evaluated against recent developments in chaos and complexity thinking. Chapter 9 outlines key choices and issues relating to modelling as a scientific practice. Conceptual, analogue, deterministic and empirical-statistical models are described, and concerns about variable definition, parameter use and uncertainty are highlighted.

In Chapter 10, Inkpen and Wilson discuss the social nature of practice in physical geography. Physical geographers, like all scientists or researchers, are embedded within multiple social networks, often conflicting and always place-specific. We can begin to think about how physical geographers do (and might) interact with these different network scales, and across a number of domains such as theoretical choices, research assessment and career advancement. While ethical reflection is required in physical geography, no single framework will do justice to the contingencies and practical contexts of any given researcher.

Overall, the book is clear and well written, with varied and helpful examples to make the philosophical concepts tangible within a practical setting. The linear structure of the book builds concepts (e.g. critical realism) and deploys them in different contexts and applications (e.g. systems analysis, modelling). While the chapters contain a lot of interesting content, the key ideas could be bolded for ease of use and reference, and perhaps the creation of systematic questions or exercises at the end of each chapter would help course instructors and practitioners to position their work more clearly within the ideas of the book.

The subdisciplinary bias toward geomorphology noted about the first edition (Gomez, 2007) has been significantly remedied through the co-authored revisions, as well as by explicitly drawing case studies from a broad range of subfields. However, discussion is still weighted toward geomorphology and now also Quaternary studies, and while ecology and biogeography do feature in the discussions, climatology is almost entirely absent. As a reader, I cannot help but ask: is there anything special about the atmosphere (as a fluid) that makes approaches to its study different to landforms and ecosystems? Are approaches and philosophies ordered or weighted differently across the subfields, and why might that be? Perhaps this should not be a question of concern for the book, but it is one for future disciplinary conversations.

As a whole, and whether intentional or not, I would argue that the book advances a systematic foundation for a critical physical geography. The book provides a coherent framework for thinking about the specific ways (or practices) through which nature is constructed as an object of knowledge and action. The book takes us through the multiple relationships between theory and reality (critical rationalism, critical realism, etc), the ways in which theories develop (through paradigms, research programmes), the ways in which theories frame and lead to models, measurements and observations, and the ways in which we pursue dialogue with the natural environment to arrive at knowledge that is both representational of the world as well as constituted by human thought and values. All of these decisions reflect choices with implications both in terms of the environmental ‘reality’ produced (or rendered invisible) as well as the particular research framings that are strengthened and given effect to (and all of the networks of which these are composed).

If a ‘critical’ project for physical geography is to be built, perhaps it should start with reflexive acknowledgement that our theoretical and methodological choices are not given, and that their enactments do multiple kinds of scientific, institutional and political work (Tadaki et al., 2012). Science, Philosophy and Physical Geography enables us as geographers to think more clearly about the specific philosophical, epistemological and ontological propositions that shape our work, and which our work shapes in turn. This encourages us to think more deeply about how we might be responsible for the multiple effects and outcomes that these propositions have in and on the world.

In sum, Science, Philosophy and Physical Geography (second edition) provides a coherent and systematic approach to understanding the philosophy of scientific practice in physical geography. Far from being a book ‘about caveats’ on knowledge, the book is particularly valuable because it is eminently practical – it does not just contextualize thinking, but also provides conceptual tools to empower it. As a clear, powerful and provocative intervention into the disciplinary corpus, Inkpen and Wilson’s book challenges physical geographers to take more responsibility for their philosophical choices as environmental scientists, because in the end these are always more-than-philosophical choices as well. It is a challenge that deserves a wide, considered and diverse response.