Eclecticism

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The grand foyer of the Palais Garnier, by Charles Garnier, 1860-1875. Stylistically, it aimed for a Baroque opulence through lavishly decorated monumental structures that evoked Louis XIV's Versailles. However, it was not just a revival of the Baroque, being more of a synthesis of Classicist styles, like Renaissance, Baroque, Rococo, Neoclassicism etc. Thus, it is an example of eclecticism. Palais Garnier's grand salon, 12 February 2008.jpg
The grand foyer of the Palais Garnier, by Charles Garnier, 1860–1875. Stylistically, it aimed for a Baroque opulence through lavishly decorated monumental structures that evoked Louis XIV's Versailles. However, it was not just a revival of the Baroque, being more of a synthesis of Classicist styles, like Renaissance, Baroque, Rococo, Neoclassicism etc. Thus, it is an example of eclecticism.
Early Romanian Revival house on Strada Grigore Alexandrescu in Bucharest, Romania, unknown architect, c. 1900, that mixes Beaux-Arts and Romanian Revival elements and proportions 42 Strada Grigore Alexandrescu, Bucharest (01).jpg
Early Romanian Revival house on Strada Grigore Alexandrescu in Bucharest, Romania, unknown architect, c. 1900, that mixes Beaux-Arts and Romanian Revival elements and proportions

Eclecticism is a conceptual approach that does not hold rigidly to a single paradigm or set of assumptions, but instead draws upon multiple theories, styles, or ideas to gain complementary insights into a subject, or applies different theories in particular cases. However, this is often without conventions or rules dictating how or which theories were combined.

Contents

It can sometimes seem inelegant or lacking in simplicity, and eclectics are sometimes criticized for lack of consistency in their thinking. It is, however, common in many fields of study. For example, most psychologists accept certain aspects of behaviorism, but do not attempt to use the theory to explain all aspects of human behavior.

Eclecticism in ethics, philosophy, politics, and religion is often compared to syncretism, but the two concepts differ in their approach to combining elements from different traditions. While syncretism in religion involves the merging or assimilation of several distinct traditions into a new, unified system, eclecticism adopts elements from various systems without necessarily integrating them into a single cohesive framework. This distinction allows for a broader, more inclusive approach in eclecticism, where the selection is based on individual merit or preference rather than an attempt to create a new unified tradition.

Origin

Eclecticism was first recorded to have been practiced by a group of ancient Greek and Roman philosophers who attached themselves to no real system, but selected from existing philosophical beliefs those doctrines that seemed most reasonable to them. [1] Out of this collected material they constructed their new system of philosophy. The term comes from the Greek ἐκλεκτικός (eklektikos), literally "choosing the best", [2] [3] and that from ἐκλεκτός (eklektos), "picked out, select". [4] Well known eclectics in Greek philosophy were the Stoics Panaetius and Posidonius, and the New Academics Carneades and Philo of Larissa. Among the Romans, Cicero was thoroughly eclectic, as he united the Peripatetic, Stoic, and New Academic doctrines. Philo's successor and Cicero's teacher Antiochus of Ascalon is credited with influencing the Academy so that it finally transitioned from Skepticism to Eclecticism. [5] Other eclectics included Varro and Seneca the Younger.

According to Rošker and Suhadolnik, however, even though eclecticism had a Greek origin, the term was rarely used and it was even given a negative connotation by historians of Greek thought, associating it with the description for impure and unoriginal thinking. [6] Scholars such as Clement of Alexandria maintained that eclecticism had a long history in Greek philosophy and it is underpinned by a deeper metaphysical and theological conviction concerning the absolute/God as the source of all noble thoughts and that all parts of the truth can be found among the various philosophical systems. [7]

Usage

Architecture and art

Building no. 45 on Rue de Courcelles in Paris, unknown architect, unknown date, an example of 19th century architecture that can be called "Eclectic" due to the fact that it uses elements from multiple Classicist styles, like the French Baroque and the Louis XVI style 45 rue de Courcelles, Paris 8e 2.jpg
Building no. 45 on Rue de Courcelles in Paris, unknown architect, unknown date, an example of 19th century architecture that can be called "Eclectic" due to the fact that it uses elements from multiple Classicist styles, like the French Baroque and the Louis XVI style
Otto Gagel House in Bucharest, Romania, 1937, by Anton Curagea and Ion Giurgea, in a style known as "Moorish" or "Moorish-Florentine", which uses eclectically Romanesque, Gothic and Renaissance elements in civic architecture, but is also characterized by big plane surfaces, due to the influences of Modern architecture 32 Strada Doctor Lister, Bucharest (03).jpg
Otto Gagel House in Bucharest, Romania, 1937, by Anton Curagea and Ion Giurgea, in a style known as "Moorish" or "Moorish-Florentine", which uses eclectically Romanesque, Gothic and Renaissance elements in civic architecture, but is also characterized by big plane surfaces, due to the influences of Modern architecture
PPG Place in Pittsburgh, US, by Philip Johnson and John Burgee, an iconic example of Postmodern architecture, that blends the simplicity and materials of Modern architecture with shapes and volumes taken from Gothic architecture, inspired, among other buildings, by the Victoria Tower in London 2008-05-24 Pittsburgh 030 PPG Building (2669504940).jpg
PPG Place in Pittsburgh, US, by Philip Johnson and John Burgee, an iconic example of Postmodern architecture, that blends the simplicity and materials of Modern architecture with shapes and volumes taken from Gothic architecture, inspired, among other buildings, by the Victoria Tower in London

The term eclecticism is used to describe the combination, in a single work, of elements from different historical styles, chiefly in architecture and, by implication, in the fine and decorative arts. The term is sometimes also loosely applied to the general stylistic variety of 19th-century architecture after neoclassicism (c.  1820), although the revivals of styles in that period have, since the 1970s, generally been referred to as aspects of historicism. [9]

Eclecticism plays an important role in critical discussions and evaluations but is somehow distant from the actual forms of the artifacts to which it is applied, and its meaning is thus rather indistinct. The simplest definition of the term—that every work of art represents the combination of a variety of influences—is so basic as to be of little use. In some ways Eclecticism is reminiscent of Mannerism in that the term was used pejoratively for much of the period of its currency, although, unlike Mannerism, Eclecticism never amounted to a movement or constituted a specific style: it is characterized precisely by the fact that it was not a particular style.

Martial arts

Some martial arts can be described as eclectic in the sense that they borrow techniques from a wide variety of other martial arts.

Philology

In textual criticism, eclecticism is the practice of examining a wide number of text witnesses and selecting the variant that seems best. The result of the process is a text with readings drawn from many witnesses. In a purely eclectic approach, no single witness is theoretically favored. Instead, the critic forms opinions about individual witnesses, relying on both external and internal evidence.

Since the mid-19th century, eclecticism, in which there is no a priori bias to a single manuscript, has been the dominant method of editing the Greek text of the New Testament (currently, the United Bible Society, 4th ed. and Nestle-Åland, 27th ed.). Even so, the oldest manuscripts, being of the Alexandrian text-type, are the most favored, and the critical text has an Alexandrian disposition. [10]

Philosophy

In Hellenistic philosophy, the Eclectics used elements from multiple philosophies, texts, life experiences, and their own philosophical ideas. These ideas include life as connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. This movement is closely associated with Middle Platonism.

Antiochus of Ascalon (c.  125 – c. 69 BC) was the pupil of Philo of Larissa, and the teacher of Cicero. Through his influence, Platonism transitioned from the Academic Skepticism of the New Academy to Eclecticism. [11] : 273  Whereas Philo had adhered to the doctrine that there is nothing absolutely certain, Antiochus abandoned this to support dogmatism. Among his objections to skepticism was the consideration that without firm convictions no rational content of life is possible. [11] : 273  Antiochus pointed out that it is a contradiction to assert that nothing can be asserted or to prove that nothing can be proved; that we cannot speak of false ideas and at the same time deny the distinction between false and true. [11] : 274  He expounded the Academic, Peripatetic, and Stoic systems in such a way as to show that these three schools deviated from one another only in minor points. [11] : 274  Antiochus was chiefly interested in ethics, in which he tried to find a middle way between Zeno of Citium, Aristotle, and Plato. For instance, he said that virtue suffices for eudaimonia, but for the highest grade of happiness, bodily and external goods are necessary as well. [11] : 274 

This eclectic tendency was enabled by the fact that most of Plato's works were non-dogmatic. [11] : 305  Middle Platonism was promoted by the necessity of considering the main theories of the post-Platonic schools of philosophy, such as the Aristotelian logic and the Stoic psychology and ethics (theory of goods and emotions). [11] : 306  On the one hand the Middle Platonists were engaged like the later Peripatetics in scholarly activities such as the exposition of Plato's doctrines and the explanation of his dialogues; on the other hand they attempted to develop the Platonic theories systematically. In so far as it was subject in this to the influence of Neopythagoreanism, it was of considerable importance in preparing the way for Neoplatonism. [11] : 306 

In modern philosophy, Victor Cousin was the founder of modern Eclecticism. [12]

Psychology

Eclecticism is recognized in approaches to psychology that see many factors influencing behavior and cognition or psyche. In the 1970s, psychologists started using whichever approaches and techniques that they deemed appropriate for their client. [13] They take multiple perspectives into consideration while identifying, explaining, and changing the behavior of the client. [13]

See also

Related Research Articles

Ancient Greek philosophy arose in the 6th century BC. Philosophy was used to make sense of the world using reason. It dealt with a wide variety of subjects, including astronomy, epistemology, mathematics, political philosophy, ethics, metaphysics, ontology, logic, biology, rhetoric and aesthetics. Greek philosophy continued throughout the Hellenistic period and later evolved into Roman philosophy.

Philo of Larissa was a Greek philosopher. It is very probable that his actual name was Philio - with a second iota. He was a pupil of Clitomachus, whom he succeeded as head of the Academy. During the Mithridatic wars which would see the destruction of the Academy, he travelled to Rome where Cicero heard him lecture. None of his writings survive. He was an Academic sceptic, like Clitomachus and Carneades before him, but he offered a more moderate view of skepticism than that of his teachers, permitting provisional beliefs without certainty.

Middle Platonism is the modern name given to a stage in the development of Platonic philosophy, lasting from about 90 BC – when Antiochus of Ascalon rejected the scepticism of the new Academy – until the development of neoplatonism under Plotinus in the 3rd century. Middle Platonism absorbed many doctrines from the rival Peripatetic and Stoic schools. The pre-eminent philosopher in this period, Plutarch, defended the freedom of the will and the immortality of the soul. He sought to show that God, in creating the world, had transformed matter, as the receptacle of evil, into the divine soul of the world, where it continued to operate as the source of all evil. God is a transcendent being, who operates through divine intermediaries, which are the gods and daemons of popular religion. Numenius of Apamea combined Platonism with neopythagoreanism and other eastern philosophies, in a move which would prefigure the development of neoplatonism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Platonism</span> Philosophical system

Platonism is the philosophy of Plato and philosophical systems closely derived from it, though contemporary Platonists do not necessarily accept all doctrines of Plato. Platonism had a profound effect on Western thought. In its most basic fundamentals, Platonism affirms the existence of abstract objects, which are asserted to exist in a third realm distinct from both the sensible external world and from the internal world of consciousness, and is the opposite of nominalism. This can apply to properties, types, propositions, meanings, numbers, sets, truth values, and so on. Philosophers who affirm the existence of abstract objects are sometimes called Platonists; those who deny their existence are sometimes called nominalists. The terms "Platonism" and "nominalism" also have established senses in the history of philosophy. They denote positions that have little to do with the modern notion of an abstract object.

Antiochus of Ascalon was an 1st-century BC Platonism philosopher who rejected skepticism and blended Stoic doctrines with Platonism as the first philosopher in the tradition of Middle Platonism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Platonic Academy</span> Ancient philosophical, research and educative center, founded by Plato

The Academy was founded by Plato in c. 387 BC in Athens. Aristotle studied there for twenty years before founding his own school, the Lyceum. The Academy persisted throughout the Hellenistic period as a skeptical school, until coming to an end after the death of Philo of Larissa in 83 BC. The Platonic Academy was destroyed by the Roman dictator Sulla in 86 BC.

Numenius of Apamea was a Greek philosopher, who lived in Rome, and flourished during the latter half of the 2nd century AD. He was a Neopythagorean and forerunner of the Neoplatonists.

Ancient Roman philosophy is philosophy as it was practiced in the Roman Republic and its successor state, the Roman Empire. Roman philosophy includes not only philosophy written in Latin, but also philosophy written in Greek in the late Republic and Roman Empire. Important early Latin-language writers include Lucretius, Cicero, and Seneca the Younger. Greek was a popular language for writing about philosophy, so much so that the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius chose to write his Meditations in Greek.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Calcidius</span> 4th-century philosopher

Calcidius was a 4th-century philosopher who translated the first part of Plato's Timaeus from Greek into Latin around the year 321 and provided with it an extensive commentary. This was likely done for Bishop Hosius of Córdoba. Very little is otherwise known of him.

Hellenistic philosophy is Ancient Greek philosophy corresponding to the Hellenistic period in Ancient Greece, from the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC to the Battle of Actium in 31 BC. The dominant schools of this period were the Stoics, the Epicureans and the Skeptics.

Mnesarchus or Mnesarch, of Athens, was a Stoic philosopher, who lived c. 160 – c. 85 BC.

This page is a list of topics in ancient philosophy.

David Neil Sedley FBA is a British philosopher and historian of philosophy. He was the seventh Laurence Professor of Ancient Philosophy at Cambridge University.

Eudorus of Alexandria was an ancient Greek philosopher, and a representative of Middle Platonism. He attempted to reconstruct Plato's philosophy in terms of Pythagoreanism.

Neoplatonism is a version of Platonic philosophy that emerged in the 3rd century AD against the background of Hellenistic philosophy and religion. The term does not encapsulate a set of ideas as much as a series of thinkers. Among the common ideas it maintains is monism, the doctrine that all of reality can be derived from a single principle, "the One".

<i>De finibus bonorum et malorum</i> Philosophical work on ethics by Cicero

De finibus bonorum et malorum is a Socratic dialogue by the Roman orator, politician, and Academic Skeptic philosopher Marcus Tullius Cicero. It consists of three dialogues, over five books, in which Cicero discusses the philosophical views of Epicureanism, Stoicism, and the Platonism of Antiochus of Ascalon which supports a hybrid system of Platonism, Aristotelianism. The treatise is structured so that each philosophical system is described in its own book, and then disputed in the following book. The book was developed in the summer of the year 45 BC, and was written over the course of about one and a half months. Together with the Tusculanae Quaestiones written shortly afterwards and the Academica, De finibus bonorum et malorum is one of the most extensive philosophical works of Cicero.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Academic skepticism</span> Skeptical period of ancient Academy

Academic skepticism refers to the skeptical period of the Academy dating from around 266 BCE, when Arcesilaus became scholarch, until around 90 BCE, when Antiochus of Ascalon rejected skepticism, although individual philosophers, such as Favorinus and his teacher Plutarch, continued to defend skepticism after this date. Unlike the existing school of skepticism, the Pyrrhonists, they maintained that knowledge of things is impossible. Ideas or notions are never true; nevertheless, there are degrees of plausibility, and hence degrees of belief, which allow one to act. The school was characterized by its attacks on the Stoics, particularly their dogma that convincing impressions led to true knowledge. The most important Academics were Arcesilaus, Carneades, and Philo of Larissa. The most extensive ancient source of information about Academic skepticism is Academica, written by the Academic skeptic philosopher Cicero.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Allegorical interpretations of Plato</span>

Many interpreters of Plato held that his writings contain passages with double meanings, called allegories, symbols, or myths, that give the dialogues layers of figurative meaning in addition to their usual literal meaning. These allegorical interpretations of Plato were dominant for more than fifteen hundred years, from about the 1st century CE through the Renaissance and into the 18th century, and were advocated by major Platonist philosophers such as Plotinus, Porphyry, Syrianus, Proclus, and Marsilio Ficino. Beginning with Philo of Alexandria, these views influenced the Jewish, Christian, and Islamic interpretation of these religions' respective sacred scriptures. They spread widely during the Renaissance and contributed to the fashion for allegory among poets such as Dante Alighieri, Edmund Spenser, and William Shakespeare.

<i>Academica</i> (Cicero)

The Academica is work in a fragmentary state written by the Academic Skeptic philosopher, Cicero, published in two editions. The first edition is referred to as the Academica Priora. It was released in May 45 BCE and comprised two books, known as the Catulus and the Lucullus. The Catulus has been lost. Cicero subsequently extensively revised and expanded the work, releasing a second edition comprising four books. Except for part of Book 1 and 36 fragments, all of the second edition has been lost. The second edition is referred to as Academica Posteriora or Academici Libri or Varro.

Aristus was a philosopher of ancient Greece from Ashkelon, aligned with the "Academic" school of philosophy, also known as Platonism. He was the pupil of and later successor to his brother, the more famous and renowned Academic philosopher Antiochus of Ascalon, and was generally considered to be the inferior philosopher.

References

  1. ↑ Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Eclecticism"  . Encyclopædia Britannica . Vol. 8 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 887.
  2. ↑ Encyclopædia Britannica – in philosophy and theology, the practice of selecting doctrines from different systems of thought without adopting the whole parent system for each doctrine
  3. ↑ ἐκλεκτικός, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek–English Lexicon, on Perseus Digital Library
  4. ↑ ἐκλεκτός, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek–English Lexicon, on Perseus Digital Library
  5. ↑ Zeller, Eduard (2001). Outlines of the History of Greek Philosophy, 13th edition. Oxon: Routledge. p. 253. ISBN   9781315822976.
  6. ↑ Rošker, Jana; Suhadolnik, Natasa (2011). The Yields of Transition: Literature, Art and Philosophy in Early Medieval China. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. p. 229. ISBN   9781443827140.
  7. ↑ Ashwin-Siejkowski, Piotr (2008). Clement of Alexandria: A Project of Christian Perfection. London: T & T Clark. p. 104. ISBN   9780567032874.
  8. ↑ Ghigeanu, Mădălin (2022). Curentul Mediteraneean în arhitectura interbelică. Vremea. p. 155. ISBN   978-606-081-135-0.
  9. ↑ Leonard K. Eaton, The Architecture of Choice: Eclectism in America, 1880-1910, 1975
  10. ↑ Aland, B. 1994: 138
  11. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Eduard Zeller, Outlines of the History of Greek Philosophy, 13th Edition
  12. ↑ Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Brahman to Derrida, Taylor & Francis, 1998, p. 10: "Victor Cousin's eclectic".
  13. 1 2 "Eclecticism in Therapy | in Chapter 13: Therapies | from Psychology: An Introduction by Russ Dewey". www.intropsych.com. Retrieved 2017-05-03.
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