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Gardening - Philosophy for Everyone: Cultivating Wisdom PDF

263 Pages·2011·6.36 MB·English
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Edited by Dan O’Brien GARDENING PHILOSOPHY FOR EVERYONE Cultivating Wisdom Foreword by David E. Cooper A John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., Publication ffffiirrss..iinndddd iiiiii 55//1155//22001100 66::4411::5533 PPMM bbnnootteess..iinndddd 225522 55//1155//22001100 66::4400::1177 PPMM VOLUME EDITOR DAN O’BRIEN is a Research Fellow at Oxford Brookes U niversity, an Honorary Research Fellow at Birmingham University, and an Associate Lecturer with the Open University. He is the author of An Introduction to the Theory of Knowledge (2006) and Hume’s “Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding”: A Reader’s Guide (with Alan Bailey, 2006). In addition, he has recently edited a special volume of Philosophica on the epistemology of testimony. SERIES EDITOR FRITZ ALLHOFF is an Assistant Professor in the Philosophy Department at Western Michigan University, as well as a Senior Research Fellow at the Australian National University’s Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics. In addition to editing the Philosophy for Everyone series, Allhoff is the volume editor or co-editor for several titles, including Wine & Philosophy (Wiley-Blackwell, 2007), Whiskey & Philosophy (with Marcus P. Adams, Wiley, 2009), and Food & Philosophy (with Dave Monroe, Wiley-Blackwell, 2007). ffffiirrss..iinndddd ii 55//1155//22001100 66::4411::5533 PPMM PHILOSOPHY FOR EVERYONE Series editor: Fritz Allhoff Not so much a subject matter, philosophy is a way of thinking. Thinking not just about the Big Questions, but about little ones too. This series invites everyone to ponder things they care about, big or small, significant, serious … or just curious. Running & Philosophy: Cannabis – Philosophy for Everyone: A Marathon for the Mind What Were We Just Talking About? Edited by Michael W. Austin Edited by Dale Jacquette Wine & Philosophy: Porn – Philosophy for Everyone: A Symposium on Thinking and Drinking How to Think With Kink Edited by Fritz Allhoff Edited by Dave Monroe Food & Philosophy: Serial Killers – Philosophy for Eat, Think and Be Merry Everyone: Being and Killing Edited by Fritz Allhoff and Dave Monroe Edited by S. Waller Beer & Philosophy: Dating – Philosophy for Everyone: The Unexamined Beer Isn’t Worth Flirting With Big Ideas Drinking Edited by Kristie Miller and Marlene Clark Edited by Steven D. Hales Gardening – Philosophy for Everyone: Whiskey & Philosophy: Cultivating Wisdom A Small Batch of Spirited Ideas Edited by Dan O’Brien Edited by Fritz Allhoff and Marcus P. Adams Motherhood – Philosophy for College Sex – Philosophy for Everyone: The Birth of Wisdom Everyone: Philosophers With Benefits Edited by Sheila Lintott Edited by Michael Bruce Fatherhood – Philosophy for and Robert M. Stewart Everyone: The Dao of Daddy Cycling – Philosophy for Everyone: Edited by Lon S. Nease A Philosophical Tour de Force and Michael W. Austin Edited by Jesús Ilundáin-Agurruza and Michael W. Austin Forthcoming books in the series: Climbing – Philosophy for Everyone: Fashion – Philosophy for Everyone Because It’s There Edited by Jessica Wolfendale Edited by Stephen E. Schmid and Jeanette Kennett Hunting – Philosophy for Everyone: Coffee – Philosophy for Everyone In Search of the Wild Life Edited by Scott Parker Edited by Nathan Kowalsky and Michael W. Austin Christmas – Philosophy for Everyone: Blues – Philosophy for Everyone Better Than a Lump of Coal Edited by Abrol Fairweather Edited by Scott C. Lowe and Jesse Steinberg ffffiirrss..iinndddd iiii 55//1155//22001100 66::4411::5533 PPMM Edited by Dan O’Brien GARDENING PHILOSOPHY FOR EVERYONE Cultivating Wisdom Foreword by David E. Cooper A John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., Publication ffffiirrss..iinndddd iiiiii 55//1155//22001100 66::4411::5533 PPMM This edition fi rst published 2010 © 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd except for editorial material and organization © 2010 Dan O’Brien Blackwell Publishing was acquired by John Wiley & Sons in February 2007. Blackwell’s publishing program has been merged with Wiley’s global Scientifi c, Technical, and Medical business to form Wiley-Blackwell. Registered Offi ce John Wiley & Sons Ltd, The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 8SQ, United Kingdom Editorial Offi ces 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148-5020, USA 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford, OX4 2DQ, UK The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 8SQ, UK For details of our global editorial offi ces, for customer services, and for informa- tion about how to apply for permission to reuse the copyright material in this book please see our website at www.wiley.com/wiley-blackwell. The right of Dan O’Brien to be identifi ed as the author of the editorial material in this work has been asserted in accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, except as permitted by the UK C opyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, without the prior permission of the publisher. Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats. Some content that appears in print may not be available in electronic books. Designations used by companies to distinguish their products are often claimed as trademarks. All brand names and product names used in this book are trade names, service marks, trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners. The publisher is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book. This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to the subject matter covered. It is sold on the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering professional services. If professional advice or other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent professional should be sought. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Gardening – philosophy for everyone: cultivating wisdom / edited by Dan O’Brien. p. cm. – (Philosophy for everyone) Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 978-1-4443-3021-2 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Gardening–Philosophy. 2. Gardens–Philosophy. I. O’Brien, Dan, 1968– II. Title: Gardening – p hilosophy for everyone. SB454.3.P45G36 2010 635.01–dc22 2010004722 A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Set in Plantin 10/12.5pt by SPi Publisher Services, Pondicherry, India Printed in Singapore 1 2010 ffffiirrss..iinndddd iivv 55//1155//22001100 66::4411::5533 PPMM CONTENTS Foreword viii David E. Cooper Acknowledgments xi Dan O’Brien Planting the Seed: An Introduction to Gardening – Philosophy for Everyone 1 Dan O’Brien PART I THE GOOD LIFE 11 1 The Virtues of Gardening 13 Isis Brook 2 Cultivating the Soul: The Ethics of Gardening in Ancient Greece and Rome 26 Meghan T. Ray 3 Escaping Eden: Plant Ethics in a Gardener’s World 38 Matthew Hall 4 Food Glorious Food 48 Helene Gammack 99778811444444333300221122__22__ttoocc..iinndddd vv 66//1166//22001100 99::1155::0099 PPMM PART II FLOWER POWER 63 5 Plants, Prayers, and Power: The Story of the First Mediterranean Gardens 65 Jo Day 6 Brussels Sprouts and Empire: Putting Down Roots 79 Michael Moss 7 Transplanting Liberty: Lafayette’s American Garden 93 Laura Auricchio 8 Cockney Plots: Allotments and Grassroots Political Activism 106 Elizabeth A. Scott PART III THE FLOWER SHOW 119 9 Hortus Incantans: Gardening as an Art of Enchantment 121 Eric MacDonald 10 Gardens, Music, and Time 135 Ismay Barwell and John Powell 11 The Pragmatic Picturesque: The Philosophy of Central Park 148 Gary Shapiro PART IV THE COSMIC GARDEN 161 12 Illusions of Grandeur: A Harmonious Garden for the Sun King 163 Robert Neuman 13 Time and Temporality in the Garden 178 Mara Miller 14 Cultivating Our Garden: David Hume and Gardening as Therapy 192 Dan O’Brien PART V PHILOSOPHERS’ GARDENS 205 15 The Garden of the Aztec Philosopher-King 207 Susan Toby Evans vi CONTENTS 99778811444444333300221122__22__ttoocc..iinndddd vvii 66//1166//22001100 99::1155::0099 PPMM 16 Epicurus, the Garden, and the Golden Age 220 Gordon Campbell 17 Gardener of Souls: Philosophical Education in Plato’s Phaedrus 232 Anne Cotton Notes on Contributors 245 CONTENTS vii 99778811444444333300221122__22__ttoocc..iinndddd vviiii 66//1166//22001100 99::1155::0099 PPMM DAVID E. COOPER FOREWORD “From my point of view, as a gardener, I consider the garden fund- amentally as a spiritual and cognitive experience.”1 So writes the distin- guished Spanish garden designer – and philosophy graduate of Madrid University – Fernando Caruncho. Appreciation of the garden, he explains, requires a maturity of emotion and understanding alike. The implied contrast is with the experience of the garden simply as a hobby, as a smallholding, or as a source of pleasing sights, sounds, and smells. The contributors to Gardening – Philosophy for Everyone write from a viewpoint similar to Caruncho’s and, like him, they are as much concerned with gardening, an activity, as with the products of this activity, gardens. Of the many aspects of the “spiritual and cognitive experience” of gardening and gardens discussed in their contributions, three are especially salient: the moral, symbolic, and temporal. The idea of the garden as a theatre for the cultivation of moral sensibil- ity goes back at least to Pliny the Younger, whose own gardens afforded him the promise of “a good life and a serious one,” of “cultivating him- self” through cultivating them.2 As several essays in this book demon- strate, it is an idea that, albeit with many permutations, has persisted. It is attested to, for example, in General Lafayette’s estate near Paris, with its celebration of liberty and republican virtues, and in the humbler kitchen gardens or allotments that express an ideal of self-sufficiency. This ethical tradition, for several contributors, is one that, moreover, deserves to per- sist, for the garden – as a place that invites the exercise of care and humil- ity, a regard for the good of plants and creatures, and an appreciation of nature’s workings – is indeed a source of moral education. ffllaasstt..iinndddd vviiiiii 55//1155//22001100 66::4422::0000 PPMM

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