THINKING AND REASONING

GEOGRAPHY AS A COGNITION INSTRUMENT

Abstract

Several authors agree that Geography is a way of thinking.  The available researches adopt different names to refer to this cognition process: geographical thinking, spatial thinking, geographical reasoning, spatial reasoning, among others. In some texts, this names are synonyms; in other as different concepts. The indiscriminate use of this terms, however, implies the weakening of the geographical identity. For this reason, it is argued that the choice of the adopted terminology is a preliminary aspect that lacks understanding that is theoretically supported. So, it becomes possible to reach theoretical maturity on Geography as a cognitive instrument. In this sense, this article is the result of bibliographic research that aimed to distinguish the notions of spatial and the geographical, thinking and reasoning. This text considers the epistemological structure of Geography and aims to answer the following questions: does cognitive development mediated by learning Geography refer to a thought or reasoning? Geographic or spatial? This paper was structured in two subsections: the first presents which elements differentiate spatial thinking / reasoning and geographical thinking / reasoning; the second addresses the nature of the cognitive processes that enable constitution of though and the role of reasoning.