Explain three main features of possiblism …

Possibilism was developed by the French School of Thought after the first world war. It developed mainly in early 20th century.

1. Possibilist thinking focuses on man's conquest over nature. Due to technological and scientific developments and innovations, possibilism negated the earlier school of thought- Environmental Determinism. It focused on man's abilities to transform and modify the nature. Nature thus, could no longer be a hindrance in his path of Development because its role was not as a dictator, but only as an advisor.
2. Possiblism is closely linked with the writings of Lucien Febvre, Vidal de la Blache (father of Possiblism) and Jean Bruhnes in France, and Isaiah Bowman and Carl Sauer in U.S.A.
3. Possibilism states that “Nature does not drive man along a particular road, but it offers a number of opportunities from which man is free to select. There are no necessities, but everywhere possibilities, and man as master of these possibilities is the judge of their use.”

However the possibilities have never claimed that man can entirely free himself from all environmental influences

4. Men can never entirely rid themselves whatever they do of the hold their environment has on them. They utilize their geographical circumstances more or less according to what they are, and take advantage more or less completely of their geographical possibilities.

5. According to possiblism, it is man who is the primary architect of his culture. This is the reason there are various differences among groups in the same or similar environments. These differences are not due to the physiK environment, but owing to the differences in attitudes, values, habits etc.

So possibilism doesn't deny the influence of environment, but studies the man-emvironment relationship from human point of view. Man has a selective power. He is free to make choices.