ABSTRACT
The recent renewed interest in the work of Helmuth Plessner also sparked the use of his philosophy, theories and concepts in other fields of science. Immanuel Kant, who from 1756 onwards taught geography for more than thirty years, 1 has already coined the crucial meaning of philosophy for geography as well as for history. Nevertheless, the disparity between philosophic reflection and applied human geographic research is sometimes substantial. Certainly, most theoretical positions within human geography are well founded on established philosophical positions, but as the philosopher Jeff Malpas reminded us of at the 2010 Meeting of the American Association of Geographers, there is a difference between consuming philosophical insights and having a dialogue among geographers and philosophers about these insights. On one side, this involves reflections on different philosophical positions and arguments about certain philosophical issues for geographers. On the other hand, this also involves gaining insights in the more practical use of philosophical arguments in geographic research for philosophers. This chapter focuses on the latter and therefore does not deal explicitly with the exegetic subtleties of how Helmuth Plessner’s work can be interpreted, but rather tries to show how his general views could productively be used and developed further in the field of human geography. Human geography in general, and Dutch geography in particular, has a long tradition in applied research in service of sometimes also rather imperialist ruling powers (Ernste 2008; Ernste 2009). However, today’s human geography is strongly influenced by a critical and emancipatory tradition (Habermas 1972). Independent of whether it is based on a critical stance or from a more mainstream point of view, in both cases, human geographers want that their research matters in practice for today’s society (Massey and Allen 1985). As such human geographic research is problem oriented. Of course, it is a well-known fact that Helmuth Plessner was also not wary of critical thinking and political and social philosophy (Plessner 2003a; Plessner 1999). In this contribution, I therefore would like to explore how the core concept of eccentric positionality coined by Helmuth Plessner, can be used for the analysis of current societal problems and how it contributes to the related social theories.
