Academy (redirected from Academy of Athens)

Academy, school founded by Plato near Athens c.387 B.C. It took its name from the garden (named for the hero Academus) in which it was located. Plato's followers met there for nine centuries until, along with other pagan schools, it was closed by Emperor Justinian in A.D. 529. The Academy has come to mean the entire school of Platonic philosophy, covering the period from Plato through Neoplatonism under Proclus. During this period Platonic philosophy was modified in various ways. These have been frequently divided into three phases: the Old Academy (until c.250 B.C.) of Plato, Speusippus, and Xenocrates; the Middle Academy (until c.150 B.C.) of Arcesilaus and Carneades, who introduced and maintained skepticism as being more faithful to Plato and Socrates; and the New Academy (c.110 B.C.) of Philo of Larissa, who, with subsequent leaders, returned to the dogmatism of the Old Academy.

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academy

Society of learned individuals organized to advance art, science, literature, music, or some other cultural or intellectual area of endeavour. The word comes from the name of an olive grove outside ancient Athens, the site of Plato's famous school of philosophy in the 4th century BC. Academies appeared in Italy in the 15th century and reached their greatest influence in the 17th–18th centuries. Their purpose generally was to provide training and, when applicable, to create exhibiting or performance opportunities for their members or students. Most European countries now have at least one academy sponsored by or otherwise connected with the state. See also Académie Française.

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academy

1. an institution or society for the advancement of literature, art, or science

2. a secondary school: now used only as part of a name, and often denoting a private school

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Academy 

the name of many scholarly institutions, societies, and educational institutions. The word “academy” comes from the name of the mythological hero Academus, in whose honor the district near Athens where Plato gave lectures to his students in the 4th century B.C. was named.

During the Hellenic period scholarly societies similar to the Academy arose—for example, the Mouseion of Alexandria in the third century B.C. In the East, the most famous medieval academies were the House of Wisdom in Baghdad in the 9th century, the Academy of Mamun in Khwarizm at the beginning of the 11th century, and the scholarly societies at the observatories in Maragheh in the 13th century and in Samarkand in the 15th century. In Italy during the 15th and 16th centuries the name “academy” was given to various scholarly institutions that specialized in the humanities. During the 17th century a group of scholarly academy societies arose that were concerned with the problems of natural science. Since the 1650’s academies have been created as national centers for scholars with state support—among them, the Royal Society in London (1660), the Académie des Sciences in Paris (1666), and the Prussian Academy of Sciences in Berlin (1700), and the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences (1724). From 1783 to 1841 there was in Russia, in addition to the Academy of Sciences, the Russian Academy, which devoted itself to questions of Russian language and literature.

Most countries now have comprehensive academies of sciences, or similar institutions; several countries also have academies that specialize in particular spheres of knowledge. In England, the London Royal Society has been functioning as an academy of sciences since the end of the 18th century. In France, the Institut National serves this function; in Italy, the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei (“the academy of those as sharp-eyed as a lynx”); and in Asian and African countries, the Arab Academy in Damascus (1919), the National Institute of Sciences of India (1935), and others. A number of academies in the capitalist countries limit their activity to discussing and publishing scholarly works, awarding prizes, counseling governments in science, and so on. In some foreign countries, the term “academy” is used for scholarly societies and social and educational organizations.

In the USSR and other socialist countries, academies are comprehensive scholarly institutions based primarily on research, with institutes, laboratories, and scientific stations; they conduct experiments on the problems of contemporary science, coordinating the work of other scholarly institutions. In the Soviet Union the major center for scholars is the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. In addition, there are academies of sciences in the Union republics and branch academies: the Academy of Agricultural Sciences, the Academy of Medical Sciences of the USSR, the Academy of Pedagogical Sciences of the USSR, and the Academy of Arts of the USSR. Several higher educational institutions are also called academies—for example, the K. A. Timiriazev Moscow Agricultural Academy, the Ukrainian Agricultural Academy in Kiev, and many higher military educational institutions. The Academy of Social Sciences attached to the Central Committee of the CPSU, the Academy of Housing and Municipal Economy, and other academies do a great amount of research and educational work.