哈特向的《地理學的性質》與其它方法論著作，在很大的程度上，係為反駁紹爾柏克萊學派的觀點而撰述。哈特向主要以赫特納的地理學觀點，作為其方法論的立論依據。由本研究可看出：他係以改編的方式，而再現赫特納的觀點；其首要目的在於想經由德國地理學知性傳統的採納，確立地理學的學科屬性，而鞏固地理學在美國學術中的地位。 哈特向於《地理學的性質》所採取的論述方式，即以地理學者曾說過什麼，而歸納這些主張的表面意義，實忽視這作法本身，絕無法展現他所欲達成之地理學的性質或本質的闡明；亦即，本研究認為有關於此課題討論，須由地理學的存在論基礎的確認，方能闡釋地理學科的性質。

Richard Hartshorne’s The Nature of Geography and his other works of geographical methodology were mostly designed as a response to the tradition of Carl Sauer’s Berkeley School. Hartshorne primarily took Hettner’s system of geography as a model to establish his methodological framework. But as this article shows, Hartshorne adapted Hettner’s viewpoint for his own end, and by this to lay the foundation for the discipline of geography among the sciences in America. In this article it also suggests that the understanding of geography’s ontology is the key to illuminate the nature of geography, rather than what Hartshorne has done in his methodological research.