CHAPTER VI
THE SCHOOLS OF PHILOSOPHY AT ATHENS AND THEIR ABOLITION BY JUSTINIAN
The systematic teaching of philosophy at Athens had
its origin in the dialectic of Socrates, whose mental
bias impelled him to a persistent search after the fundamental
truths which underlie the sociological organization
of mankind. His constant effort was to discover what principles
should be instilled into young men in order to render
them worthy members of the community; and in pursuit of
this object he made a practice of perambulating the city
intent on applying his method of question and argument to
all persons accredited with any kind of knowledge. Thus he
laboured unremittingly in earnest effort to elicit sound
opinions or to convict of fallacy. Every Greek town was
adorned with a gymnasium, and large cities, such as Athens,
possessed several institutions of the kind. Established for
the physical training and athletic development of youth, a
gymnasium consisted of covered halls, of porticos provided
with sculptured stone seats, and of a small park or exercise
ground shaded with plane and olive trees.[1] Ultimately the
gymnasiums assumed something of the form of the colleges
- ↑ Vitruvius (v, 11) is the source for the topography of the gymnasium, Becker-Göll's Charicles for the elaboration of scattered details.
