'Nature provides opportunities and human being make use of these and slowly nature gets humanised', scholars termed this as which of the following?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 3
The correct answer is Option (3) → Possibilism
With better technology, people use the chances that nature gives them and leave their mark on it. Scholars called this idea possibilism.
Option (1) Environmental Determinism — Incorrect. Here nature is all-powerful. People with low technology follow the dictates of nature and adapt to it.
Option (2) Post-modernism — Incorrect. This is an approach of the 1990s in human geography. It questioned grand generalisations and stressed understanding each local context.
Option (3) Possibilism — Correct. People move from a state of necessity to a state of freedom and create possibilities with the resources of the environment.
Option (4) Neo-determinism — Incorrect. This is Griffith Taylor’s middle path, or ‘stop and go determinism’. People can develop, but only within the limits that nature allows.
Note: A similar question was also asked in CUET (UG) 2023 on 23-06-2023 (Slot 3) and 08-06-2023 (Slot 3).
NCERT (2026-27): “The people begin to understand their environment and the forces of nature with the passage of time. … The earlier scholars termed this as possibilism. Nature provides opportunities and human being make use of these and slowly nature gets humanised and starts bearing the imprints of human endeavour.” |