Friedrich Ratzel's methodological contributions to geographical cience

Abstract

The Prussian Friedrich Ratzel (1844-1904) is one of the leading names of Classical Geography. Author of books such as "Anthropogeographie" and "Politische Geographie", he developed a broad theoretical and methodological body, which contributed significantly to the development of geographic science. Themes such as the relationship between man and environment, the State, society and territory, as well as the formulation of the principle of extension and the concept of "Living Space", and the proposition of the holistic approach are some of its main contributions and objects off discussion of this article. It is concluded that Ratzel's works contain quite current and pertinent reflections to the geographical studies, in spite of the criticisms addressed to him, many of which are mistaken and not in accordance with his ideas. Thus, their rescue is paramount for understanding the very essence of geography. This article has the objective of demystify the deterministic vision imposed to the geographer in question and supports itself in a theoretical reference in which a lot of authors contribute said demystification. We utilized reading, bibliographic consultation, hermeneutics and concluded that the characterization of geographer Friedrich Ratzel as a radical is exagerated and imprecise.