地理学思想史研究对地理学学科发展具有重要意义。当前国内对地理学思想史的研究比较缺乏。地理学思想史的任务并不仅仅是讲述地理思想和知识的产生、形成和演变过程,而且要通过这一过程达到对地理学性质的把握和准确认识。通过地理学思想史研究可以把握地理学的要旨:地球表面的差异性是地理学的关键,而对此进行描述和解释是地理研究的主要内容。地理学思想史有两个大的发展阶段:古典时期和近现代时期。在面临坚持传统与积极创新的抉择时,地理学家应该多从思想史中吸收和借鉴,并避免掉入二元论的语义陷阱。

It is very important for geographers to know and understand the history of geographical ideas. The relative research findings about the history of geographical thoughts are not enough in China, and it has been ignored for a long time. The scholars who study the history of geographical ideas should not only master and state the geographical ideas and knowledge, and the formation and evolution of them, but also by way of this knowledge accurately understand the nature of the geography. In his book, Geoffrey Martin holds that the difference of the Earth's surface is the keystone of geography, and the main task of geographers is to describe and explain it. The whole history of geographical ideas can be divided into two major phases:the classical and modern times. The demarcation between the first and the second stage is in 1859, because the founders of modern geography, Humboldt and Ritter died in this year. Although geography has common object and subject all over the world, geography of each country has its own tradition and characteristics in the different stages. Geographers should absorb experiences from the history of ideas and learn from the professional counterparts, and avoid the dualism. In the future, geography will focus on some major issues about the development of humanity in the 21st century. In order to know and understand the historical facts of the geographical thoughts, geographers should more profoundly understand "history" and "thought" in the end, and not be limited in a field of geography. For scholars who study the history of geographical thoughts, they should combine tightly geography with history and thought, achieve the final goal that theorizes those historical facts of geographical thoughts. After all, geography is a kind of philosophy, because all geographers are influenced by some philosophical ideas. Judged by the level of philosophy and theory, the work of Martin's is traditional, broad and meticulous, but not enough deeply concerned with theory and philosophy and modern thoughts.