HISTORY


History

Philomatic tradition and history can be traced back to the Origen philosophy of the 5th century AD and to Ipazia of Alexandria getting through the philosophic school of Athens.

The development of modern philomatic associations (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philomaths) took place during the Renaissance with la Société Philomathique de Paris, la Société philomatique vosgienne, and the congregations of Philomathes in Poland. The novelist  Jack London tells us about the presence of Philomathes even in the US territory.

Most of the Philomathes worldwide and in different ages have been massacred  because of  their liberal ideas and  their effort in pushing the primacy of culture over politics and dogmatism. Among them we remember Ipazia from Alexandria, the American Philomathes (from Chicago), and the Polish student Philomathes killed by the police (picture on the left).
In Italy, from 1600 to 1800 many “public academies” have been risen in order to awake a national cultural static project (L’Accademia dei Rinnovati, L’Accademia dei Filareti, L’Accademia degli Incolti, l’Accademia degli Intronati, l’Accademia di Arcadia, L’Accademia dei Remoti…). The Royal Philomathic Academy of Lucca was officially founded on the 9th January 1826 and it gathered  together  philosophers until 1857, when public meetings came to an end. The philomathic seat, the regal theatre, was destroyed by a fire and once up for auction was bought by the Academy of Renovated. To get the theatre back the Academy of Philomathes had to join the Renovated Academy.  In spite of all the theatre of Renovated was donated to the municipality in 1935, probably  because of economic issues.


WHAT  IS THE PHILOMATHIC ACADEMY TODAY?













The Philomates Association  is the ancient academic institution’s heir, a private association founded in 2005 by a group of Italian citizens, whose aim was to offer to members a permanent debate  forum in order  to deepen the wide topics common to different involved areas, spread the habit to work together to improve the understanding and provide with intellectual contributes, which are useful to find a solution to the tackled problems.  To achieve these goals the A.F. has followed three basic principles from the beginning: working according to a technocratic method, acknowledge the importance of multilateral organizations and avoid unilateral actions.
On the 28th December 2005, thanks to the involvement  of qualified members of Italian and foreign economic, political and cultural environments and  the main western European countries, it took place some preliminary meetings in order  to verify the viability of an association which allowed to deepen and discuss the main topics (such as politic, economic, social) familiar  to all knowledge branches: like science, philosophy, economics, history, psychology, medicine and so on.
The perception of founders was from its origins that a debate between people of different backgounds and professional proficiency but with the same level of responsibility, could contribute more effectively to improve the ordinary  knowledge of issues by studying and discussing to spot new solutions.
The second point shared by founders and still now essential to the spirit which is at the bottom of the Philomates Association activity is the deep conviction  that the fastest way to solve world’s problem is based on good international relationships, good multilateral organizations functioning and on the so-called government  “intermediate bodies”.
The first Philomates Society’s meeting was in Rome at the beginning of 2006 and it was established a working plan for the next seven years (indeed this is the length of the presidential term of office). Since then the association carried on its own activity on a seven-year program basis, monitored yearly by the executive council in charge.
Initially the association was made of a narrow number of members, four  territorial representatives and three national sections. Afterwards the number increased  little by little, taking more and  more into account the number of the represented countries.
Several national groups have structures strictly depending on the managing board, according to the local needs. For the groups of the main non-Italian cities it is also expected a national level activity and a secretariat.