Academy

The Academy

Plato's dialogues, and to a lesser extent Aristotle's writings, have conveyed to later generations an impression that this was the physical location of the 'golden age' of Greek philosophy.

If it is perhaps misleading, it is none the less influential. Universtity teachers are all nowadays 'academics'. 'Academe' as something of a literary conceit is used by Shakespeare in Love's Labour Lost.

Pysically, the Academy was a garden open to the public six stadia outside the walls of Athens, by the side of the river Cephissus. Plato is thought to have acquired property there around 387 BC and to have taught there, together with other philosophers in the gardens.

The name seems to have come 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.