Academics

The Legal History of Academics

This section provides an overview of Academics.

Academy

According to the Cambridge Dictionary of Classical Civilization:
“The philosophical school founded by PLATO, named after the GYMNASIUM near Athens in which it was located. Three stages in the history of the school are conventionally distinguished. The Old Academy developed Plato’s dogmatic teachings, including his interest in MATHEMATICS. Beginning with Arkesilaos (316/15–242/1 BC) the Middle Academy emphasized rather the sceptical aspect of Plato’s writings, rejecting the STOIC account of KNOWLEDGE and showing that, as there were arguments against every position, it was wise to suspend judgement. The New Academy of Karneades (214/13–129/8 BC) similarly rejected dogmatism. While Kleitomachos interpreted Karneades as holding that it was wise not to assent, Philo of Larisa (159/8–84/3 BC) took his view to be that the wise person could hold opinions while being aware that they might be false and went so far as to claim that this had been the consistent doctrine of the school throughout. In the confusion following SULLA’s sack of Athens in 86 BC the school seems to have disintegrated, Antiochos of Askalon (b. c.130 BC) rejecting Philo’s position and claiming to restore the dogmatic position of the Old Academy, asserting that the views of the Old Academy, ARISTOTLE and the Stoics had been essentially similar. Whether the Academy continued as an institution is uncertain, as is the relation to it of the later NEOPLATONIST ‘School of Athens’. In the first two centuries AD ‘Academic’ was increasingly used to indicate SCEPTICAL followers of Plato, ‘Platonist’ those who adopted a more dogmatic position – the ‘Middle Platonists’ (not to be confused with the earlier Middle Academy).”
.

Resources

See Also

• Legal Biography
• Legal Traditions
• Historical Laws
• History of Law

Further Reading

• • Academics in the Oxford International Encyclopedia of Legal History (Oxford University Press)
  • The Oxford Encyclopedia of American Political and Legal History (Oxford University Press)
  • Dillon, J. (1996) The Middle Platonists;
  • Glucker, J. (1978) Antiochus and the Late Academy;
  • Ostwald, M. and Lynch, J. P. (1994) Plato’s academy, in CAH 6, 602–16;
  • Schofield, M. (1999) Academic epistemology, in K. Algra et al., eds., The Cambridge History of Hellenistic Philosophy 323–51

• Academics in the Dictionary of Concepts in History, by Harry Ritter
• A Short History of Western Legal Theory, by John Kelly