The world's first academy was founded in Athens at the beginning of the fourth century BC by the philosopher Plato, perhaps one of the greatest and most influential thinker of ancient Greece. It started as a simple association of like - minded intellectuals which was named after its meeting place near the grove of the hero Academus on the outskirts of the city.
Through the Academy, Plato taught young Athenian aristocrats (including the equally influential philosopher Aristotle) the arts of philosophy, geometry and mathematics. Even after Plato's death the academy continued as a centre of learning, developing ideas which would become the foundation of Western philosophy and which would have a profound influence on the development of Christian ideology hundreds of years later.
In modern English, the world 'academic' has come to imply 'out of touch', 'pointless' or 'obscure'. This of course is terribly unfair on the original Academics, whose philosophies lie at the very heart of later Western thought.
Through the Academy, Plato taught young Athenian aristocrats (including the equally influential philosopher Aristotle) the arts of philosophy, geometry and mathematics. Even after Plato's death the academy continued as a centre of learning, developing ideas which would become the foundation of Western philosophy and which would have a profound influence on the development of Christian ideology hundreds of years later.
In modern English, the world 'academic' has come to imply 'out of touch', 'pointless' or 'obscure'. This of course is terribly unfair on the original Academics, whose philosophies lie at the very heart of later Western thought.
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