Academy
Academy is a term with multiple meanings. In its original meaning (as in The Academy section below) reference was to the doctrines, organization or physical plant of the Athenian philosophical school associated with the Greek philosopher Plato. The term is also variously applied to contemporary schools, colleges and universities, both individually and collectively: Academe, the academy, academic (e.g., academic vs. athletic scholarships), academics, as applied to teachers and students as a group, and many other such references. Some private schools (e.g., Brookline Academy) and even organizations incorporate the term into their names or titles (e.g., The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which presents the Academy Awards annually) and the scholarly American Academy of Arts and Letters.
. 'Academe' as a literary reference is used by Shakespeare in Love's Labour Lost, and sometimes refers to the literary life. The term also appears frequently in the titles of various European royal,aristrocratic or national institutions, like the Acad´emie Francaise, discussed below, and various British Royal Academies.
Philology
The word academy is of Greek origin, dating at least to the fourth century BCE and is a reference to the Goddess Athena, the goddess of wisdom.
The Academy
Plato's dialogues, and to a lesser extent Aristotle's writings, have conveyed to later generations an impression that the Academy was the physical location of the 'golden age' of Greek philosophy. While there is debate among scholars whether this notion is misleading, it is none the less influential.
Physically, the Academy in Athens was a garden open to the public, six stadia outside the walls of Athens, by the side of the river Cephissus. It is supposed to have contained a sacred grove of olive trees dedicated to Athena. Plato is thought to have acquired property there around 387 BCE[1] and to have taught there, together with other philosophers and aristocrats.
An alternative explanation is that the term is from its being part of an estate said to have belonged to Academus. The inspiration behind the Academy however, was the school established by Pythagoras at Croton. When Plato died, leadership of the Academy was passed to his nephew Speusippus, who was later followed by Sceptics such as Arcesilaus and Carneades. With the fall of Athens in AD 88, all the buildings were destroyed. [2]
Heads of 'The Academy
Plato's immediate successors as Head (or Diadochus) of the Academy were Speusippus (347-339 BC - and hence not Aristotle), followed by Xenocrates (339-314 BC), Polemon (314-269 BC), Crates (ca. 269-266 BC), and Arcesilaus (ca. 266-240 BC).
Later heads include Lacydes of Cyrene, Carneades, Clitomachus, and Philo of Larissa, considered to be the 'last undisputed head of the Academy'.[3]
In the early 5th century (c. 410) the Academy was revived by various 'Neoplatonists' at a different location in a large house which Proclus eventually inherited from Plutarch and Syrianus.
Accademia della crusca
The Accademia della Crusca is a Florentine (Italian) organization of linguists, philologists and literary scholars that is the oldest linguistic institution in Europe. It has been the most important guardian of the Italian language since its founding in 1583. It's official determinations are published in annual revisions to the official dictionary of Italian and the Accademia served as the model for similar linguistic organizations in French, Spanish, German and English.
Acad´emie Francaise
The Acad´emie Francaise, or as it is usually known in English, The French Academy, is the official custodian of the French language, both in terms of meanings and pronunciation. Unlike contemporary English, which is a veritable linguistic free-for-all, the governing council of the Acad´emie Francaise adopts, embraces or approves the acceptance and correct pronunciation of all new terms into the official French language. This is thought by some linguists to be an impossible task, and results in various creoles or unofficial language variants. It is unclear, for example, the extent to which Quebeque (Canadian) French is well aligned with "official" (academic) French.
As an institution, the Acad´emie Francaise was officially founded in 1635 by Cardinal Richelieu, suppressed during the French Revolution and restored in 1803 by Napolean Boneparte as the oldest of the five departments of the Institut de France
References
- ↑ see, for example, http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/2615/Academy
- ↑ 'Essentials of Philosophy and Ethics', edited by Martin Cohen, Hodder Arnold 2006
- ↑ The Cambridge History of Hellenistic Philosophy (Cambridge University Press, 1999), pp. 53-54