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the world and contemplation of the own activities and their results - a
more humanistic approach.
This paper is an attempt to bring this two faces closer to each other in a
coherent model of thinking. The more contemplative “inner eye” is recog-
nised and treated as a factor with comparable importance to the other two -
observation and abstraction. This face of cartography was never denied but
because of its elusive nature is hard to analyse it in a systematic way. This
is probably the reason way it is living its life in the concealed side of the
cartographic theory's world. Yet: when you speak on a close person-to-
person level, not only to cartographers but also others, with interests in
maps, sooner or later you discover an array of deep, emotional, but fre-
quently almost deprived echoes from the depth of their minds which are
related to the “inner eye”. The current, almost exponential technical devel-
opment dominates our minds. But in order to make its fruits not only really
useful but also sweet and enjoyable we must allow that our inner eye to
prevail.
2- Classifying and analysing maps
2.1 Departure point: three extreme categories of maps
When classifying maps according their sources we can discern three
extreme categories
Maps based entirely on direct visual observations . This case is illus-
trated by figure 1A which shows a palaeographic map, incised in a
smooth stone flab on the top of a hill in middle Italy, some 7000 years
ago. The map shows a village; the houses, fences, garden plots and even
people (see also Appendix). Today we should call it a thematic map.
The author of the map was obviously standing on that hilltop, looking
down on the village and depicting his observations in a rather durable
way. It is based entirely on his visual perception of this scenery
Maps based entirely on abstractions . “Abstraction” implies here results
of geodetically or geographical measurements, collection of statistical
and other data by e.g. field registrations, enquiries etc. “Abstraction”
includes here also geographical phenomena created by the abstraction of
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