Re:Nalanda: The university that changed the world
by dr_dshiv on Monday March 06, 2023 @04:07PM
(#35047610)
If they called it an academy, would that be better?
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Re:Nalanda: The university that changed the world
by SeanLuke on Monday March 06, 2023 @05:35PM
(#35048744)
Sure? There are lots of resonable terms. And I don't want to denegrate Nalanda nor its historical import. But Bologna invented the concept and coined the term to specifically describe a new kind of institution with certain critical and (for the time) novel characteristics which carry on in modern universities. I think describing Nalanda as a university is like saying the Blue Mosque is a cathedral. It's an impressive an important religious building in of itself: but it's not a cathedral.
Re:Nalanda: The university that changed the world
by jltsiren on Monday March 06, 2023 @10:51PM
(#35051326)
If "university" is too specific, "academy" is even worse. Academies in the modern sense can be traced back to the renewed interest in humanities in Renaissance Europe. And the word itself comes from an olive grove named after an obscure mythological figure in ancient Athens.