For LR1


It is interesting that they call the various academic fields "disciplines," just as you say. Fencing, horseback riding, but also the more intense disciplines make a very fine companion to academic study. 

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

The Philosophers' Black Iron Lifting Championship would certainly be more entertaining than the Philosophers' Soccer Match was. :) I'll have to borrow that with attribution.

If "discipline" goes back to "discipulus," or student, and to the related verb meaning to study a specific topic, then it makes good sense to call any intense field of study a discipline. (Also the related "discipline" in the sense of chastisement.)

I personally would challenge using "academic discipline" to describe certain modern fields and majors, however.

LittleRed1

Grim said...

For history's sake, it should be noted that our best information was that Plato was a wrestler. Maybe also a boxer, according to the forms of his day, which were different from ours; but the Republic has some metaphors that suggest he was a fighter. "Platon" is supposed to have meant "broad."