School (discipline)


 * For other things named school, see school (disambiguation).

A school is a collection or group of people who share common characteristics of opinion or outlook of a philosophy, discipline, belief, social movement, cultural movement, or art movement. It is for this reason a school often called a school of thought or a school of belief or practice such as a school of painters.

Schools are often characterized by their currency, and thus classified into "new" and "old" schools. 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 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 that originated in Ionia and the Chicago school of architecture that originated in Chicago, Illinois and the Prague School of linguistics, named after a lingusitc circle found in Prague.