Griffith Taylor
Also called: Thomas Griffith Taylor · Topic: Human Geography: Nature, Scope and Approaches · NCERT: Class 12, Ch 1 "Human Geography: Nature and Scope"
Meaning
Griffith Taylor (1880-1963) was a British-born Australian geographer. He proposed neo-determinism, also called "stop and go determinism". It is a middle path between determinism, where nature controls people, and possibilism, where people are free to choose. He compared it to traffic lights. Nature sets the signals: red means stop, amber means get set and green means go. People decide the pace within those signals, and they "conquer nature by obeying it". In the 1920s he argued that Australia's dry interior limited how many people could settle there. Many attacked him for this view.
Example
Joshimath in Uttarakhand sits on weak, unstable slopes. Heavy building there ignored nature's red light, and the land began to sink. Taylor's idea warns against this kind of "free run".
Don't confuse with
- Possibilism: it gives people wide freedom. Taylor's neo-determinism says freedom exists only within limits set by nature.