Conclusion

The histories of the scientific disciplines, including the history of geography, had at
first -and to some extent still have- the functions of legitimacy and socialization. In
general, these histories have been developed with the disciplines themselves as the
point of departure and, in the most developed cases, taking into account the theoretical
and methodological issues that they have. With time, however, they have been able to
reinforce this historical dimension by gradually evolving towards the history of
science, and this conflux has been facilitated by the fact that the latter has also at
times turned into a history of the sciences, i.e. a history of the individual disciplines.

There is undoubtedly a dialectical relationship -a toing and froing- between the history
of a discipline and its professional practice. It has been said many times that the study
of history reflects contemporary issues; one turns to history, above all at moments of
crisis, seeking origins, precedents, foundations. Starting from current issues, one
approaches the past in order to understand the present better, and this always leads to
the definition of new topics and new viewpoints in historical studies.

Nevertheless, the history of a discipline, like the history of science in general, is also
an area of history proper; it has a value of its own irrespective of the benefits it brings
to the work of scientists today. In geography there is a long tradition of historical
studies which has produced works of great value from the viewpoint of the history of
science or of social and cultural history. Thus a history of geography is -to paraphrase
a well-known saying- more history of geography than history of geography. Even so,
in spite of the distance from today's concerns, the effects of these historical studies on
current practice is unpredictable; they sometimes have unexpected positive results
since, viewed from the past, the present is seen from new angles which can effect
current scientific practice.

At all events, however one approaches it, the history of geography can contribute to
the formation of a geographical theory which takes into account the origin and the
evolution of the concepts that are used; which provides scientific method with a point
of comparison; which reveals the ideological load of many postulates and theories;
and which promotes an awareness of the degree to which the ideas are socially
generated, contrasted and spread within the scientific communities, as well as how
they are influenced by general intellectual conceptions, from the religious and
political to the aesthetic. In today's changing world, with its rapid and profound
restructuring of the fields of knowledge, the history of geography, in the sense of a
comparative history of the discipline, can help the young student.

It does so by showing him the changing historical configuration of the branches of

science and of the scientific communities, thus preparing him to reject the discipline's
blinkers and, if necessary, to "rebel". And this is, of course, a far cry from the
purposes of legitimacy and socialization that these histories traditionally served.

Our research program in the history of geography sprang from a given historical
situation: in the first half of the 1970's and in the context of the changes that were
taking place in Spanish geography and Spanish society. At its inception, we were
concerned with various issues, especially the need to explain the conduct of
geographers faced with changes which had taken place in geography elsewhere and
which were just then reaching Spain. The conduct of certain established geographers -
of unquestioned authority in the community- gave us a vivid impression of the degree
to which scientific communities are reluctant to change.

Instead of encouraging the exploration of new paths -something which did not entail
the renunciation of their own methods and views- they displayed an attitude of
rejection which, in some cases, led to behavior that could be labelled psychotic and
which, because of its influence on the more junior, generated difficulties for the
consideration and, if appropriate, the acceptance of the new ideas. This combined with
the difficulties in responding to the problems of the nature and methods specific to
geography, and with the anxiety over whether it was legitimate of research -and even
teaching- to take over theories from other disciplines. All of this generated the basic
questions that set off our research program.

Although there are certain specific aims that we had at the outset (130) and which
have continued in the program, the fact is that it has diverged and ramified, leading
the researchers -and among them, because of seniority, in particular the present
author- in unexpected directions. The issues have linked up and led us from one to the
other. Here are some of the routes: first, from contemporary geography to that of the 1
8th century; thence to the different branches of geography at that period, including
physical geography; this led to the theories of the physical structure of the earth, to the
philosophical currents which had influenced these, including platonism and
organicism; from there finally to the influence of religious beliefs on the development
of geology. Second, from a concern for the geographical community to other scientific
communities, especially to those that studied the earth's space, including the army's
engineering corps; and thence to public works and the ordering of space in the 18th
century. To conclude, a third route has led from hygiene to medical topographies;
from there to the history of environmental ideas; then to the history of
environmentalists' explanations of human activity; lastly to the theories that question
environmentalism, laying emphasis on specific human characteristics such as race and
genetic quality.

Thus, although there are long-term aims, the program has developed in zigzag
fashion, with diversions, fluctuations, reorientations; above all, with unexpected
ramifications that reveal new issues and force us to introduce new perspectives. With
time certain aims -and certain texts already completed- are set aside, possibly to be
taken up again in the future. The development of the program among the younger
researchers is influenced by what has gone before, but at the same time it influences
and reorientates the earlier hypotheses, the methods and the aims. More and more it is
turning into a collective and increasingly diversified task, the same as has happened -
earlier or at the same time- to other Spanish researchers; the historians of medicine, of
physics and of biology have opened new fields and introduced new enriching
perspectives (131) .

We are aware that our experience is limited both in some of our lines of research and
in suitable techniques; we also recognize the great number of interesting avenues that
remain unexplored. We would particularly like to be able to tackle the psychoanalysis
of science, or rather of the work of scientists, as well as the history of geographical
language. Because of the importance of graphics in geography, this latter would lead
into a history of cartography and a history of signs and systems of representation.

As for the temporal lim its to our research, while the beginning is limited for the time
being to the Renaissance and the Scientific Revolution, the end is only limited by the
present moment, and we believe that this too can be the subject of historical research.
As may be gathered from all we have said so far, we consider this last, given its
obvious connections with the sociology of science and epistemology, as of special
interest.