Metodologiczne problemy historii myśli geograficznej

Polish geography of a last fifty years can be perceived as an example of a field in which the continuity of tradition was disrupted. Since 1949, scientific methodology had to conform with the ideological dogmas of the state. The development of Polish post-war geography went by way of strict specialization and the classical synthetic approaches had to disappear. Polish geography became greatly indifferent in its relation to the majority of philosophical systems. Even if it formally refered itself to the ideology of Marxism-Leninism, it remained as strongly imbued with pure scientism. Representatives of particular geographical disciplines lost their common language and the number of specialist subfields was continually growing. The disintegration became sanctioned institutionally and the humanistic tradition of geography had undergone reduction. Totalitarian ideology did not tolerate any concepts that existed in the earlier period. Some of them were seen as no more than "belles lettres", unworthy of the socialist scientist's attention. Among such excommunicated concepts one can find some issues of theory and philosophy of geography along with the history of geographical thought. As a consequence, even if we formally honour our classics nowadays, what remains problematic is the very idea of geography as a field, which is not limited to the mere deepening of the knowledge in narrow areas of specialization. The disappearance of the history of geographical thought goes hand in hand with the decline in the significance of geography, in its social relevance, and the weakening of geography's position in the system of knowledge.