1st Edition

A Geographical Guide to the Real and the Good

By Robert Sack Copyright 2003
    312 Pages 10 Color Illustrations
    by Routledge

    In this original and ambitious work, the renowned geographer Robert Sack argues for places that expand our awareness of reality and that increase the variety and complexity of reality. The joint application of these two criteria is the basis of a geographically informed moral theory that emphasizes the role of altruism. As well, it sheds light on the connection between the real and the good. Place-making that is guided by these criteria can affect our concepts of justice, our concerns about nature, and our views of democracy and the economy. What emerges is a geographical theory of morality based on the concepts of space, place, and place-making. Using historical and contemporary examples at all geographical scales to illustrate his theory, Sack forces readers see their geographical actions and everyday surroundings in an entirely new way.

    Preface, INTRODUCTION, Chapter 1. Geography, the Real, and the Good, Chapter 2. The Power of Place, PART I. INSTRUMENTAL JUDGMENTS, Chapter 3. Situatedness and Relativism, Chapter 4. Situatedness and Absolutism, PART II. INTRINSIC JUDGMENTS, Chapter 5. The Theory, Chapter 6. Geopsychological Dynamics, Chapter 7. Geosocial Dynamics, POSTSCRIPT, Chapter 8. The Problematic and Moral Theory, Notes, Index

    Biography

    Robert Sack is the Bascom Professor of Geography at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and is the author of numerous books.

    "This is an amazing piece of work. It is nothing less than an attempt at providing a geographical theory of morality based around the concept of place that Sack has developed in his previous writing." -- John Agnew, author of Geopolitics and Human Geography
    "Featured in The Chronicle of Higher Education's New Scholarly Books section, May 2, 2003."