Horology (geography)

Although causal relationships between individual geographical phenomena on a given territory were considered as early as the works of ancient and medieval scholars, the universal scientific concept of chorology (“spatial science” or “space science”) appeared in the middle of the 19th century . Alexander Humboldt and Karl Ritter considered the geographical phenomenon in their relationship with each other and for the first time raised the question of finding general laws for the existence of the geographic shell of the planet (including, with some reservations, human society). Despite the rich factual material collected by both scholars and a large number of particular examples proving their correctness, chorology was not a scientific theory as such, since the interpretation of the facts was carried out from philosophical and phenomenological positions.

The chorological concept acquired a new interpretation from Alfred Göttner (1927). Göttner considered the object of studying geography terrestrial space with objects and phenomena filling it and interacting with each other. The connections between them, according to Gettner, are of a landscape , causal nature. To such systems of geographical objects, Göttner also included human society. Separate unique combinations of certain objects and phenomena in a certain territory lead to the appearance of geographical countries ( horos , spaces), which are the object of study of regional geography .

As a result of the fragmentation of geography at the beginning of the 20th century into sectoral scientific areas, the chorological school ceased to exist. The basic ideas of chorology, however, were adopted by a number of other scientific directions. Classical landscape studies , behavioral geography and the school of spatial analysis are considered successor schools of chorology.