Geographic determinism and geosociology: methodological foundations to demarcate of concepts

In modern scientific knowledge, there is a growing need to use the potential of concepts of geographical determinism. This is indicated by an increase in the number of publications by modern scholars on the issues of in-depth study of certain sociological schools. At the same time, there is still no methodological certainty in using a number of key concepts. The article is an attempt to delineate the concepts of "geographical determinism" and "geosociology". The article is methodological in nature. The author turns to the theoretical analysis of concepts. The method was a theoretical analysis in the form of scientific reflection. The works of representatives of the Russian geographical school in sociology of the period of the XIX-beginning of the XX centuries are used. Science criteria are used to determine the boundaries of the use of the concepts "geographical determinism" and "geosociology." The basic criteria of the scientific nature of the discipline: the determination of regularities, the level of systemic nature, and the methods used the evidence of the factual basis, the categorical apparatus. The results of the research confirmed the author's hypothesis: geographical determinism and geosociology are adjacent areas of sociological knowledge; geosociology is inherent in relation to geographical determinism. The author has revealed that, according to the basic criteria of scientific nature, geosociology represents a higher level of scientific knowledge. It proceeds from the multifactor nature of social development with the defining significance of geographical conditions. Geosociology is more systematic, uses a larger array of methods, and expands the facts base. In addition, it introduces "sociological" conceptual concepts into circulation. Thus, the author summarizes that the development of a geographical school in sociology has led to the isolation of new types of disciplinary and sub-disciplinary knowledge: geosociology, an-thropogeography, geopolitics, environmental sociology, ecology, ethnic ecology, ethnogeny theory. The potential of these types of knowledge can be widely used in modern sociology.