Origins
The academy as institutional form derives from Plato’s Academy, founded around 387 BCE in Athens—a grove sacred to the hero Academus where Plato gathered students for philosophical discussion. This school persisted for centuries, evolving through various philosophical orientations before closure in 529 CE. The name “academy” came to denote institutions gathering learned people for intellectual purposes. The Renaissance revived the academy form: the Platonic Academy of Florence (1462), the Accademia dei Lincei (1603), and other Italian academies gathered scholars outside university structures.
The scientific academies of the 17th century established the form’s modern character. The Royal Society of London (1660) and the Académie des Sciences in Paris (1666) brought natural philosophers together to exchange findings, witness experiments, and publish results. These societies combined intellectual community with institutional infrastructure: meeting spaces, publication venues, correspondence networks, and eventually research facilities. They became arbiters of scientific legitimacy, their membership conferring recognition. The academy supplemented the university with venues specifically oriented toward knowledge advancement rather than teaching.
Academies proliferated across domains and nations. National academies of science—modeled on the Royal Society and Académie des Sciences—spread worldwide. Academies of arts, letters, medicine, engineering, and specialized fields organized practitioners in their domains. The form adapted to different purposes: some academies primarily honor achievement; others conduct research; others promote their fields publicly. What unites them is the gathering of recognized practitioners for knowledge-related purposes: advancing understanding, setting standards, honoring contributions, and representing expertise to broader society.
Structure & Function
Academies typically constitute membership organizations of recognized practitioners. Election to membership represents peer recognition of achievement; membership may be limited, making election an honor. Members meet periodically to present work, discuss problems, and conduct business. Officers and councils govern academy affairs. Staff support operations. The academy serves as both community and institution—a gathering of individuals who also constitute a corporate body with its own identity and functions.
Core functions include facilitating scholarly communication, providing peer recognition, and speaking with collective authority. Meetings and publications create venues for exchanging ideas; some academy journals (like the Royal Society’s Philosophical Transactions) became foundational scientific periodicals. Election to membership certifies that peers judge a scholar’s work significant. When academies speak on policy matters—issuing reports, advising governments, addressing public controversies—they claim authority based on collective expertise. These functions position academies as organized voices of intellectual communities.
Academies vary in their relationships to research, education, and government. Some academies (like the Soviet Academy of Sciences) directed research institutes; others (like most national academies) primarily honor and convene rather than employ researchers. Some closely advise governments; others maintain distance. Some include educational functions; others focus solely on advanced scholars. The academy form proves flexible, adapting to different national traditions and disciplinary needs while maintaining core features: peer selection, intellectual community, and collective representation.
Historical Significance
Academies institutionalized scientific and scholarly communities, providing infrastructure that individual scholars could not create. The emergence of modern science coincided with the academy movement; some historians argue that academies were essential to scientific revolution, providing venues for the exchange, validation, and publication that cumulative science requires. Academies created scientific identity—being a Fellow meant being a scientist—and established norms of scientific practice: open publication, empirical verification, peer evaluation.
National academies became markers and instruments of modernization. Establishing an academy of sciences demonstrated a nation’s commitment to knowledge and modernity. Colonial and post-colonial nations created academies as part of nation-building. The academy form thus spread globally, adapting to different contexts while maintaining recognizable features. Today, national academies exist in over 100 countries, networked through international bodies like the InterAcademy Partnership.
Contemporary academies navigate complex roles. Their traditional function as elite communities faces democratizing pressures; their claims to speak authoritatively face public distrust of expertise; their national bases sit uneasily with science’s global character. Yet academies remain significant: the National Academies in the US produce influential studies; the Royal Society addresses major scientific issues; disciplinary academies confer prestigious recognition. The form persists because societies still need organized expertise—communities of practitioners who can speak with collective authority on matters requiring specialized knowledge.
Key Developments
- c. 387 BCE: Plato founds Academy in Athens
- 529 CE: Emperor Justinian closes Athenian philosophical schools
- 1462: Platonic Academy of Florence under Cosimo de’ Medici
- 1603: Accademia dei Lincei founded in Rome
- 1635: Académie française founded; literary academy model
- 1660: Royal Society of London established
- 1666: Académie des Sciences established in Paris
- 1700: Berlin Academy founded by Leibniz
- 1724: Russian Academy of Sciences founded by Peter the Great
- 1739: Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences founded
- 1780: American Academy of Arts and Sciences founded
- 1863: National Academy of Sciences (US) chartered
- 1901: Nobel Prizes begin; academies nominate and select
- 1919: International Research Council (later ICSU) formed
- 1960s: Soviet Academy of Sciences at peak influence
- 2000: InterAcademy Council established
- 2016: InterAcademy Partnership formed