isua-isnscatalog-1891-1892-059

Description:	58 ANNUAL CATALOGUE.work the student is led to see (1) what are the astronomical conditions which primarily determine the distribution of heat overthe globe (2) how fixed units of time and space measure arederived, and (3), how geographical location may be accuratelyascertained and indicated.In the second phase, the earth is studied as to its four greatconstituents—the land, the water, the atmosphere, and theliving forms. These are studied first in their individual nature,and then in their relation of mutual dependence. Here thespecial aim is to impress the student with the fact that thesefour constituents of the geographical earth are so bound together by relations of interdependence as to constitute a wholewhich may, with eminent propriety, be called an organism. Inthis connection every effort is made to bring the phenomenastudied within the range of the students conscious experience.No indorsement, however, is given to the view that the experience of the individual, however elaborated by reflection, canever furnish his mind with the knowledge adequate to a trueconception of the geographical earth. The observations andexperiences of others must, of necessity, supply to the individual by far the greater part of his stock of geographicalideas and since these ideas must be acquired largely throughthe medium of language, it is of the utmost importance that thestudent be exercised in the interpretation of the vast mass ofgeographical literature now so easily accessible to all.The second phase of the work includes the study of man,but only in his character as a member of the animal world.The study of man as a spiritual being, i. e., as a builder of institutions—industrial, commercial, political, religious, educational and social, belongs to the third and highest phase ofgeographical study, and to this the name political geography maybe appropriately applied. In the Normal School, the study ofthe political geography of a country consists, essentially, in astudy of its human institutions, in the two-fold relation whichthey sustain to the physical conditions of a country. This relation is conceived to be two-fold in that, (1) physical .environment determines very largely the nature of human institutions
Source:	http://indstate.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/isuarchive/id/33674
Collection:	Indiana State University Archives

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