Urban parks as spaces to pursue virtuous character, friendship, and contemplation: An Aristotelian perspective

Abstract

Given the complexity of meaning of urban parks in our lives, philosophical inquiry may provide a way to help understand what good urban parks are and what role urban parks can play in people's lives. Our desire to understand underlying meanings of today's urban parks led us to explore Aristotle's writings The Nicomachean Ethics. Hence, we discuss connections between Aristotle's ideas associated with virtuous character, friendship, and contemplation that we conclude are relevant to providing a normative view of urban parks. Such a normative interpretation suggests that urban parks have the potential to create spaces that (a) provide social contexts to encourage virtuous behaviors and moral goodness, (b) help create a safe and stable community through connections between different people or groups, and (c) help enhance people’s possibilities to achieve contemplation during leisure, leading to experiences associated with the good life.

Keywords:

• Urban parks
• virtuous behavior
• community
• Aristotle
• philosophy