A Postmodern Tao

In geography, the spatial truths one endeavors to recognize are unfolding patterns in the dynamic relations between Homo sapiens and Earth. These patterns give rise to a geographer's quest of ever-receding horizons of understanding. This book is a collection of interconnected essays and talks which pursue the pattern of our age, a time of the most profound disjunctions of intellectual and spiritual worldviews since the nova of scientific knowledge. The author observes an imminent collision between a pair of antithetical "certainties," the modern primacy of individual freedom and the traditional primacy of the collective. The author aspires to the reconciliation of antinomies, a meeting of themes, and a collage of philosophically geographical observations rather than a mere patchwork. His presentation reflects the underlying philosophical tensions inherent in the postmodern worldview. Contents: Foreword; Preamble; Introduction; The Tao of Geography; A Map is Not the Territory: The Virtue of Reality; Geographer's Quest; Postmodern American Pop Myths; Beyond Kitsch; The Fourth Paradigm; Lost in Cyberland: The Last Texians; Postface; Appendix: Wanderings; References; Index.