The mission of academia in the age of science.

Historical Context Historically, when human groups began to live in communities, the education of children gradually emerged as an important privilege, greatly aspired to by parents belonging to the upper echelons. In ancient Greece, children were tutored by well-paid Sophists who taught rhetoric and logic for the pursuit of self-interest and monetary gain. As alternatives to the sophists, the "philosophers" appeared, in search of truth. Ironically, Socrates, the most prominent of the "philosophers", was executed for ‛corrupting the young’. In 387 BC, Plato, a pupil of Socrates, established the first "Academy" outside the city walls of Athens, thus maintaining its independence. Over time, Plato’s Academy came within the city of Athens, and academicians began to be involved in daily politics. The mission of Plato and the Academia was extended by Aristotle and saw the spread of a variety of disciplines worldwide. The Byzantine Emperor Justinian closed the Academy on the grounds of its pagan ideology in 529 AD. The second group of Academies was established in Baghdad during the reigns of Caliph Harun al-Rashid and his elder son Al-Mamun. The third generation of academies was established in 1603 in Italy (Accademia dei Lincei), then later, in the second half of the 17 century, in France (Académie des Sciences) and England (the Royal Society). The other academies of the world followed these examples. In Turkey, there have been numerous endeavours to organise the establishment of a science academy, such as the Encümen-i Daniş Cemiyeti (the Consultative Committee) in 1851, and the Cemiyyet-i İlmiyye-i Osmaniyye (the Ottoman Science Society) ten years later. The Tarih-i Osmani Encümeni (the Ottoman History Council), founded in 1909 after several stages of evolution,