Philosophy for Gardeners

Ideas and paradoxes to ponder in the garden

Kate Collyns

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Hardback

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English

Frances Lincoln Publishers Ltd
01 March 2022

Philosophy; Gardening; Gift books

Explore ideas, consider the big questions and learn life lessons in your garden. Gardening is an innately thoughtful as well as practical pastime: planning ahead, imagining how plants will grow, deciding what will make a good garden, wondering at the beauty of flowers and noticing how ecosystems work. This delightful and engaging collection of essays illustrate how many philosophical ideas arise naturally in gardeners' everyday work. Growers by their nature are in fact already philosophers:

- existentialists who try to live and work by their own rules in a garden; - stoics who put up with slug damage again and again, and try to work in harmony with nature; - and practical quantum scientists who witness incredible processes going on in plant cells beneath the ground.

In Philosophy for Gardeners, Kate Collyns uses aspects of gardening to introduce and explore a range of philosophical ideas and schools of thought; cultivating a greater understanding and appreciation of intriguing concepts, propagated from science, evolution and aesthetics through to politics, economics and ethics. Broken into four sections, Soil, Growth, Harvest and Cycles, each section explores questions of philosophy through the lens of the garden. A fascinating read, this book is as perfect for students of philosophy as it is for gardeners, filled with thought-provoking reflections on life, being and existence.

By: Kate Collyns
Imprint: Frances Lincoln Publishers Ltd
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 210mm, Width: 155mm,
Weight: 460g
ISBN: 9780711268210
ISBN 10: 0711268215
Pages: 144
Publication Date: 01 March 2022
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

IntroductionPart 1: Soil 1.Mysteries of the soilPlatos Cave & unobserved causes 2.Planning the GardenImposing our individual rule on the natural world 3.Natural harmoniesBecoming one with nature 4. Utilitarianism & the greater goodFairness in the garden 5.Whats in a name?How important are definitions and accuracy?Part 2: Growth 6.Evolution & the plant-pest arms raceDarwin & worries about genetic modification in plants 7. The kindness of plantsGame theory & why cooperation is best 8.Nature versus nurtureWhen is a blank slate not blank? 9.Photosynthesis: quantum biology in plantsQuantum physics in the garden 10.Weeding: Zenos ParadoxHow can change happen when distance & time are infinitely divisible?Part 3: Harvest 11.The perfect tomatoDo ideal forms exist on a higher plane? 12.Art & beautyIs beauty in the eye of the beholder? 13.Miracle berries: are senses reliable?Is a lemon sweet or sour? 14.Minding your peas & cuesHow can we know anything? 15.Wealth from the dirtEconomics & the origin of valuePart 4: Cycles 16.Methuselah treesThe Ship of Theseus identity paradox 17.Heaps of seedsLogic & the sorites paradox 18.Composting: ultimate recyclingEntropy & reincarnation 19.In the shed: ethics & the pursuit of happinessHow to live the Good Life 20.The pragmatic gardenerPractical philosophy & getting off Buridans Ass Further Reading Index

Kate Collyns is a gardener and philosopher. She set up her sustainable market garden at Hartley Farm in Wiltshire following her graduation of the Soil Association's Horticultural Apprenticeship in 2010. Kate has an MA in Philosophy from the University of London, and likes nothing better than to ponder the existential nature of the universe whilst weeding a bed of lettuce.