A school of thought, or intellectual tradition, is the perspective of a group of people who share common characteristics of opinion or outlook of a philosophy, ^[1] discipline, belief, social movement, economics, cultural movement, or art movement. ^[2]

History

The phrase has become a common colloquialism which is used to describe those that think alike or those that focus on a common idea. ^[3] The term's use is common place.^{[ according to whom?] [2]}

Schools are often characterized by their currency, and thus classified into "new" and "old" schools. There is a convention, in political and philosophical fields of thought, to have "modern" and "classical" schools of thought. An example is the modern and classical liberals. This dichotomy is often a component of paradigm shift. However, it is rarely the case that there are only two schools in any given field.

Schools are often named after their founders such as the " Rinzai school" of Zen, named after Linji Yixuan; and the Asharite school of early Muslim philosophy, named after Abu l'Hasan al-Ashari. They are often also named after their places of origin, such as the Ionian school of philosophy, which originated in Ionia; the Chicago school of architecture, which originated in Chicago, Illinois; the Prague school of linguistics, named after a linguistic circle founded in Prague; and the Tartu–Moscow Semiotic School, whose representatives lived in Tartu and Moscow.

An example of a school of thought in Christianity (and Gnosticism) is Neoplatonism, which has massively influenced Christian thought, from Augustinianism to Renaissance/ Humanism to the present day. ^[4]

See also

• Commentary of a philosophical text
• List of philosophies
• Mindset
• Paradigm
• Philosophical movement
• Worldview

References

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