The results of behavioral and perception research are of little value in the explanation of real-world human geographical activity. The idea behind behavioral and perception geography that people behave in the real world on the basis of subjective images, not objective knowledge, is not new. A strong quantitative and theoretical dimension and interdisciplinary orientation distinguishes recent research from earlier work. The main thrust of modern research has been on the composition of images and their relationships to socioeconomic and other attributes of subjects. Behavioral and perception geographers have assumed that environmental images can be measured accurately and that there are strong relationships between environmental images and actual behavior. These assumptions are questionable and so is the status of research based upon them. A new emphasis on actual behavior is needed in behavioral and perception research as a first step towards the investigation of the behavioral consequences of images in real-world geographical contexts.N the 1960s behavioral geography and en-I vironmental perception were recognized widely as important new themes in human geography. The basic idea behind these approaches, nevertheless, was not new. Sauer, Wright, and Kirk, among others, had all emphasized that people behave in the real world not on the basis of objective knowledge, but in terms of subjective images of it.l Most of the leading behav-
An analytical objective human geography is possible without theory. The idealist philosophy can be used to draw a sharp distinction between the explanation of rational human actions and other phenomena. A rational human action is explained by reconstructing the thought behind it. The human geographer has no need of his own theories, because he is concerned with the theories expressed in the actions of those being investigated. Procedures for testing the worth of an idealist interpretation of a set of actions are just as appropriate, objective, rigorous, and intellectually responsible as those advocated by positivist philosophers for theoretical explanations.
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