Neo Determinism

• The concept of ‘neo-determinism’ was put forward by Griffith Taylor—a leading Australian geographer.

CRITICISM TO POSSIBILISM

• He maintained that in 10% of the world, possibilism worked and in remaining 90% of the world nature speaks out clearly.
• He argued that possibility had developed their ideas in temperate environments such as north-western Europe, which offer several viable alternative forms of human occupance. But such environments are rare: in most of the world as in Australia the environment is much more extreme and its control over human activity is enormous.

PROPOSITIONS

• He coined the term ‘stop- and-go determinism’ to describe his views.
• In the short term, people might attempt whatever they wished with regard to their environment, but in the long term, nature’s plan would ensure that the environment won the battle and forced a compromise out of its human occupants.
• In his book on Australia published in 1948, Taylor reaffirmed his basic position      “The best economic programme for a country to follow has in large part been determined by nature (environment), and it is the geographer’s duty to interpret this programme. Man is able to accelerate, slow or stop the progress of a country’s (region’s) development. But he should not, if he is wise, depart from directions as indicated by the natural environment. He (man) is like the traffic controller in a large city who alters the rate but not the direction of progress.”