Hippocrates And Ratzel: Environmental Determinism
Hippocrates and Ratzel thought temperate regions were the best due to the notion that difficult (scarcity) conditions are positive for a civilization. Hippocrates and Ratzel made environmental determinism about character. For example, Hippocrates thought that an excess of heat burns one’s skin and that is why they are black and that an excessive amount of cold is what makes people white. “The intelligence resides not only in their magnitude, but in their power of growth” (Ratzel, 1896/2014, p. 110). Ratzel believed that raw materials are not enough, have to use human intellect, it is about what you do with what you have. However, this is not the case, logic is the difference. Jared Diamond believed that the Northern latitude had dominance initially
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Under environmental determinism, the statement that due to the weather being warm it has the ability to cause people to act a certain way, which for warm temperatures causes people to be lazy. I believe this to be true because I am someone who lives in Arizona and I have lived here my entire life. In the summer, Arizona can get excessively warm, which causes me and I am sure many other individuals to not to want to do anything but stay inside and enjoy the invention of the air conditioner. Another example of environmental determinism would be the fact that people tend to migrate towards water or live along coastlines because deserts are so inhospitable. To elaborate, as of 2001, “more than 8 in 10 Australians (85%) lived within 50 kilometers of the coastline” (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2004). I think my first example of warm temperatures causing people to be lazy is an environmental determinism because it goes along with Hippocrates linking climate, landscape, physique, and temperature together. My second example of people living near coastal regions is more of an environmental possibilism because people chose to move near the coast because of it benefiting their lifestyle rather than it being something that is forced upon
Under environmental determinism, the statement that due to the weather being warm it has the ability to cause people to act a certain way, which for warm temperatures causes people to be lazy. I believe this to be true because I am someone who lives in Arizona and I have lived here my entire life. In the summer, Arizona can get excessively warm, which causes me and I am sure many other individuals to not to want to do anything but stay inside and enjoy the invention of the air conditioner. Another example of environmental determinism would be the fact that people tend to migrate towards water or live along coastlines because deserts are so inhospitable. To elaborate, as of 2001, “more than 8 in 10 Australians (85%) lived within 50 kilometers of the coastline” (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2004). I think my first example of warm temperatures causing people to be lazy is an environmental determinism because it goes along with Hippocrates linking climate, landscape, physique, and temperature together. My second example of people living near coastal regions is more of an environmental possibilism because people chose to move near the coast because of it benefiting their lifestyle rather than it being something that is forced upon