实证主义地理学是通过"认识论翻转"确定均质化空间而保证其有效性的,这在根本上规定了实证主义方法论中人文世界的隐没。人类科学理性的缔造经过"认识论翻转",确保了其割裂人文世界的普世价值观,并随着实证主义在近现代的成功和学科建制化而得到制度保障。这一历程在显示实证主义对地理学神圣指导作用的同时,暗含了其对地理学分工的不适。在"认识论翻转"层面上,人文主义地理学对地理学研究传统进行了"否思":①重新评估了地理学的本体论问题,使人文世界定位于地理学研究领域之内;②发展了针对人文世界的整体主义方法论,但并非对实证主义的反判;③人文主义地理学的立足点伦理和价值是内在的而非实证主义外在的;④人文主义地理学讨论的知识论要求"本体论-认识论与方法论-价值论"的联通以获得具有人性的世界图景。

As one of the most influential or leading schools in the past half of century, humanistic geography has brought human beings to the centre-stage of human geography. According to humanistic geography, human being is always human-being-in-place, a ‘locality of being’ marks a radical change in geographical thinking, because it presupposes that indicating anything is impossible unless you putting them in their "places". Some of our disciplinary leaders, examples include Alexander von Humboldt, Paul Vidal de la Blache genres de vie, Carl O. Sauer, Halford J. Mackinder, Richard Hartshorne, J. K. Wright, David Lowenthal etc. thinkers have sought ways to comprehend historical, cultural, economical forces how constructed or influenced different geographical phenomena in transformational areas. "Area" is one of the aspects of "place", according to Yi-fu Tuan, but "area" does not reveal the spirit of a person and his/her experience in a unique place. Critical change did not happen until 1970s, when some leading humanistic geographers. Drawing partly on this special conceptualization of "place", this article insists the significance of humanistic geography to our discipline is not only critical previous methods, i.e. positivism geography, but, more critical, also re/placing our positivism traditions in geographical research.