The Academy
Modified: 2023-10-19 8:27 AM CDST
In this section, we will explore the history and development of colleges and universities. That exploration will begin with a look at the classic philosophers, move into the Medieval period, and finally into modern times. We will also look at non-Western academic traditions. We will follow with a close examination of Southern Arkansas University and attempt to determine its place in the taxonomy of modern academe. Later in another section, we will look at today's students and their characteristics.
What is the academic experience?
- Ancient Greece
- Included Ionia (Modern Turkey), Crete, and parts of the Italian peninsula
- Dominarted by sea with a mountainous interior
- Warm climate, favorable for farming
- City-states evolved about 2,800 years ago (Notably: Athens and Sparta)
- Warred with the Persians twice (City-states united against them)
- Marathon
- Salamis
- Both Greek victories
- Peloponnesian War ended Athenian democracy and left Sparta ascendant
- Phillip and Alexander of Macedon, conquer Greece
- Alexander the Great spreads Greek ideas
- Alexander's conquests
- Hellenization: the spread of Greek ideas (Aristotle was Alexander's tutor)
- Founded Alexandria, Egypt. It later became an intellectual center with its famous library.
- (Greek word roots)
- polis: politics, police
- demos: democracy, demography
- photo: photograph
- chrono: chronic, synchronize
- geo: geology, geometry
- dyna: dynasty, dynamic
- Early Greek philosophy argued over materialism vs rationalism (and we are still arguing about them)
- materialism the belief that everything in the universe must consist of matter, including minds and mental states.
- rationalism the universe, including physical events, can only be explained through the action of human thought.
- The Big Three
- Socrates (469-399 BCE)
- Hoplite (Greek soldier)
- Active in the Assembly
- Did not write, but spoke in public
- Know thyself
- An unexamined life is not worth living
- If I know anything, it is that I know nothing
- Convicted by the Assembly for corrupting the youth of Athens
- Chose execution by drinking hemlock over exile (notice that there are no women present)
- Plato (429-347 BCE)
- Wrestler, poet, politician
- Became a philosopher after meeting Socrates
- After Socrates death he founded his own school: The Academy
- Plato's Academy
- He wrote dialogues with Socrates as a literary character
- Search for truth
- It was to be found in the mind of a philosopher
- The forms were those truths, Goodness was the most important
- Allegory of the Cave from his dialogue The Republic illustrates his thinking
- Slaves chained to a wall in a cave
- They only can see the shadows from the street
- One escapes and sees the "real world"
- He's caught and tries to describe what he saw to the other slaves
- Aristotle (384-322 BCE)
- Plato's student, thought he would take over from Plato in the Academy but did not get the job
- Aristotle's Lyceum
- First library? (scrolls, of course)
- Empirical philosophy (cats)
- Plato: ideal cat in philosopher's mind
- Aristotle: concept of cat comes from observation of many cats
- Studied more that philosophy:
- Biology
- Psychology
- Ethics
- Politics
- Painting
- Theatre
- Physics
- His physics was later codified by the Church
- Bruno burned
- Galileo jailed
- Copernicus's works burned after his death
- School of Athens (detail) by Raphael
- Later philosophers and philosophies
- Cynicism
- Diogenes (412-323 BCE)
- Looking for an honest man
- and Alexander (quit shading me)
- Austere lifestyle
- Money does not buy happiness
- Stoicism
- Zeno of Citium (344-262 BCE)
- Stoicism became the leading philosophy of the Roman Empire
- Living in accordance to nature
- The Greek gods interacted with humans
- Propositional logic
- "and" (to enroll in course must have 3.00 GPA and consent of the instructor)
- "or" (to enroll in course must have 3.00 GPA or consent of the instructor)
- "if...then" (if you have less that a 3.25 GPA then you cannot graduate as HC student)
- Fate (dog and cart)
- Cleanthes offered the example of a dog tied to a cart. Once the cart began to move the dog, too, had to move either by walking or being dragged. The dog was fated to move, but could choose how deal with fate.
- No reason for charity, the rich and poor each fated
- Skepticism
- Suspended belief about sensations
- How to explain dreams and hallucinations?
- Wait until more was known
- Anti-dogmatism
- Epicurianism
- Trusted in their senses to a point
- The swerve (atoms moved by chance at times
- Retreated from world to:
- Epicurus's Garden (341-270 BCE)
- No afterlife
- Greek gods to busy to interfere with people
- Hedonists: good food, good times
- Philosophy takes a Nap
- So called Dark Ages
- Christian monks
- Christianity and Islam impose revealed knowledge (Bible and Qu'ran)
- Both prohibited the search for new knowledge
- Philosophy slowly re-emerges as European universities are founded
- Founded to train priests and clerics
- A side effect was the slow restoration of intellectual inquiry
Medieval Universities
Students
Questions
- How do you see college as being different than high school?
- What kind of school is SAU?
- What are college students like?
- SAU so far?
- Honors College so far?
Back to Main Page
