School (discipline)

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

A school is a collection or group of people who share common characteristics of either outlook (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 (e.g. the "Rinzai school" of Zen named after Linji and the Asharite school of early Muslim philosophy named after Abu l'Hasan al-Ashari) or their places of origin (e.g. the Ionian school of philosophy that originated in Ionia and the Chicago school of architecture that originated in Chicago, Illinois).

See also

• Mindset
• movement
• History of painting