A Philosophy of Gardens

by David Edward Cooper

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. Not only is this a fascinating subject in its own right, it also provides a reminder...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 019923888X
• ISBN13: 9780199238880
• Release Date: April 2008
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
• Length: 184 Pages
• Weight: 0.52 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 5.4" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Not for the casual gardener.

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.