institution

The Academy

the Academy

also: Academia, Old Academy, Academiae

Plato's philosophical school; Cicero distinguishes the Old Academy (Speusippus, Xenocrates, Polemo, and the descent through Antiochus) from the sceptical New Academy of Arcesilas and Carneades.

Reading notes

On Divination §1.5 the Old Academy
The earlier, more dogmatic phase of Plato's school, as opposed to the sceptical New Academy of Carneades that Cicero himself followed. Quintus aligns the Old Academy with the Stoics and Peripatetics in approving divination.
On the Nature of the Gods §2.1 An Academic without eloquence
The New Academy, the skeptical school to which Cotta belongs, which argued on both sides and suspended assent. Velleius the Epicurean concedes he was outmatched by Cotta's combination of Academic dialectic and rhetorical skill.
Tusculan Disputations §3.7 when we had gone down into our Academy
Cicero had named part of the grounds of his Tusculan villa 'the Academy' after Plato's school at Athens, as he named another part 'the Lyceum.' The philosophical conversation takes place there.