Starting with classical geography and throughout its multiple modem versions, the discipline has been influenced by a powerful current of pholosophical idealism which has made it a solid instrument of reactionary powers. The demonstration of the existence of this current is attempted through the analysis of articles written by Vidal de la Blache, Brunhes, Sautter, Morrill, Gould, Berry, Racine; this analysis involves the critique of themes such as equilibrium, harmony, region, landscape, diffusion, models, dualism, perception, mental maps. There follows a proposal to recognize that the foundations of social relations are firstly material, that such is the case also for the spatial conditions and the spatial constraints of their elaboration. Beyond this critique and the concrete proposals for change that result there from, is also questioned the very nature of intellectual work and of the links it entertains with State power.