Theoretical - philosophical Explanation of geographical space in positivism and hermeneutics methodology schools

Explanation of one concept in different cognitive schools has very great importance. In this field, in the geographical sciences; space concept as a very important paradigm in the geography could be taken different meaning in different cognitive schools. Space consists of a bilateral relation between human and the environment. Geographical science analyses this space and its issues with human and physical dimension. So, in this paper, the main question is ‘what is the definition of space in Positivism and Hermeneutics schools?’. This research has fundamental approaches in the philosophy of geography and has referred to valid documents and bibliographies for the compilation of information. This research deals with descriptive and analytical approaches, the space definition has been given according to the characteristics of the two important schools. Findings of the research reveal that in the Positivism school, space was considered as a perceptual concept. In other words, researchers should make use of their sense and their experience for detecting things in space. In Positivism school, a researcher should not involve his ideology or his culture for discovering the truth. So, Positivism geographical research has been integrated with quantitative tools such as statistics, mathematics and positive models. In Hermeneutics school, meanings, ideas, theories, together obtain their objectivity and importance by a dominant power and ideology. In this school, geographical spaces also are derived from dominant ideological and power. Consequently, the ruling discourses are constantly creating meaning and landscape, and recognizing these symbols and perspectives requires a kind of interpretation to identify the forces and non-visible discourses that make these symbols.