The Space and Its Subsumption into Society

This chapter examines the logical point of departure and the fundamental material base of Marxist geography: physical space. The nature of pristine space free from human action is presented in the Euclidean axioms of geometry, summarised into the dual and contradictory attributes of pristine space: absolute and relative. The absolute space has contiguousness, homogeneity and isotropy and accepts anything as a container. However, relative space has the property of separation differentiation, which individuates anything in space. These two attributes are thus in contradiction, while they are unified in physical space: the dialectics of separation within unity. In a class society, the physical space with these attributes is placed under power.