Definition of "school of thought" [school of thought]

• The point of view held by a particular group: "We have many schools of thought in the intelligence services” ( Tom Clancy). (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "He also attained eminence as a writer on philosophy, and indeed may be said to have founded a school of thought based upon two theories, (1) the Doctrine of Vibrations, and (2) that of Association of Ideas."
• "More recently Errol Fuller declared in his book Extinct Birds: “The call was never clearly described but one school of thought inclines to the opinion that the word ‘dodo’—probably coined by Portuguese sailors—is simply a rendering of it.”"
• "For a full understanding of his attitude, the reader must be acquainted with the nature of his pietistic upbringing and later scientific and philosophical formation in the Leibniz-Wolff school of thought (see KANT, PHILOSOPHY OF)."