SAINTEXUPERY GEOGRAPHY LESSON - ART AND SCIENCE IN THE CREATION AND CULTIVATION OF LANDSCAPE VALUES

Saint-Exupéry's geography lesson is critical of official, generalized geographies that are irrelevant to lifeworlds, humane values, and spirituality. Geography is seen in the context of the dehumanization of landscapes and lives by Cartesian-inspired science. In answer, the essay argues for art, as developed in arts-and-letters humanism of the Renaissance, as an equal but separate path to “truth” in humanistic geography. It further argues that the sources for human values that humanistic geographers should endeavor to transform into landscape values are found in the subjective, imaginative creations of modern literary-artistic humanists. The critical focus for such studies is the condition of the individual human being in the contemporary landscape. Humanization of cultural landscapes, in the sense of a humane, “enlightened anthropocentrism” is seen as equal in importance to ecological perspectives. Three major research themes are outlined. © 1990, Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. All rights reserved.