A Philosophy of Gardens
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Book Overview
Why do gardens matter so much and mean so much to people? That is the intriguing question to which David Cooper seeks an answer in this book. Given the enthusiasm for gardens in human civilization ancient and modern, Eastern and Western, it is surprising that the question has been so long neglected by modern philosophy. Now at last there is a philosophy of gardens. David Cooper identifies garden appreciation as a special human phenomenon distinct from both from the appreciation of art and the appreciation of nature. He discusses the contribution of gardening and other garden-related pursuits to "the good life." And he distinguishes the many kinds of meanings that gardens may have, from their representation of nature to their spiritual significance. A Philosophy of Gardens will open up this subject to students and scholars of aesthetics, ethics, and cultural and environmental studies, and to anyone with a reflective interest in things horticultural.
Format:Hardcover
Language:English
ISBN:0199290342
ISBN13:9780199290345
Release Date:March 2006
Publisher:Clarendon Press
Length:184 Pages
Weight:0.70 lbs.
Dimensions:0.7" x 5.5" x 8.3"
Customer Reviews
1 rating
Not for the casual gardener.
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 17 years ago
This is a work of philosophy with abundant references to Kant and other philosophers. So the casual reader of garden books should be forwarded! Professor Cooper's approach is interesting and welcome to the relatively small number of rigorously philosophical treatments of gardens. I would like to say that Cooper is a philosopher in the Anglo-Analytic tradition, especially for his fine attention to language; some readers may be put off by his near obsession with precision of language. However, I was pleased to find numerous references to some of the analyses of gardens coming from literature, even quotations from Rumi and Japanese Zen. Overall, a rigorously philosophical approach to the place of gardens in human life. Worth reading IF you have a strong background (I'd say nothing less than a BA) in Western philosophy.
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