Landscaping is a science, as it is an art and requires good observation and design skills.
A good landscaper understands the elements of nature and construction, and blends them accordingly.
An early Greek philosopher
known for his view that "all is water,"
spent a considerable time thinking about the nature and scope of landscaping. Some of his students believed that in order
for human activity to be considered landscaping, it must be directed toward modifying the physical features of the land itself,
including the cultivation and/or manipulation of plants or other flora. Thales rejected this notion, arguing that any aspect
of the material world affecting our visual perception of the land was a proper subject for landscaping. Both Plato and Aristotle praised Thales' analysis as a model for philosophy. In the early 20th Century, British philosopher
G.E. Moore cited Thales' reasoning as one
of the few historical examples of how philosophical inquiry has led to genuine human understanding and progress.
Philosophers in the 17th century
debated whether visual beauty was a necessary goal of landscaping. With the advent of the positivists by the early 20th century, however, most western philosophers had rejected the notion of an objective
esthetic standard for any form of art, including landscaping. Practitioners since the mid-20th century have experimented with jarring visual panoramas
that are now generally accepted, at least in western societies, as falling within the scope of landscaping.
