The Philosophy and Art of Gardening studies botanical nature formed by human hands to be beautiful. The goal of the class is to explore questions such as "What makes a garden" and "What makes a garden beautiful?"

Students are encouraged to practice the art of gardening to supplement their coursework (sites on the UHD campus can be made available for this purpose). Practical readings are from Thomas Jefferson's The Garden Diary. Readings n the theory of the garden will include The Gardener's Eye, by the philosopher Allen Lacy, and Ferris Cook's collection The Remembered Garden. We shall read theories of art including selections from Aristotle, Tolstoy, Umberto Eco, and Santayana. We shall also examine the effect of gardening on the gardener. We shall read from a variety of works including Veronica Ray's Zen Gardening, Judith Handelsman's Growing Yourself, and Julie Messery's The Inner Garden.

We shall examine some of the metaphors and meanings of gardens in works such as The Secret Garden, Candide, Genesis. We will conclude with philosophical reflections on nature, time and memory from Alfred North Whitehead and Edmund Husserl, for what else is a garden? The idea behind the class is to formulate a philosophy of the strange art of gardening which, although it employs general aesthetic principles, is unlike any other art because its material is living.