noun
definition
Someone who selects according to the eclectic method.
Examples of eclectics in a Sentence
In the last stage of Greek philosophy the eclectic spirit produced remarkable results outside the philosophies of those properly called eclectics.
Among the early Christians, Clement of Alexandria, Origen and Synesius were eclectics in philosophy.
The eclectics of modern philosophy are too numerous to name.
Of Italian philosophers the eclectics form a large proportion.
The picture gallery is equally important in its way, affording a survey both of the earlier Bolognese paintings and of the works of the Bolognese eclectics of the 16th and 17th centuries, the Caracci, Guido Reni, Domenichino, Guercino, &c. The primitive masters are not of great excellence, but the works of the masters of the 15th century, especially those of Francesco Francia (1450-1517) and Lorenzo Costa of Ferrara (1460-1535), are of considerable merit.
The conflicts of the opposing schools, and the obvious deficiencies of each, led many physicians to try and combine the valuable parts of each system, and to call themselves eclectics.
Yet the substance, quality, condition absolute (7rws gxov) and condition relative of Stoicism have no enduring influence outside the school, though they recur with eclectics like Galen.
The stoics, on the other hand, taught his immanence, while the eclectics sought truth by the mingling of the two ideas.
Their system became best known and most widely used by individual eclectics.
The shameful capitulation of the eclectics caused much anger in our ranks.
At the same time, the essence of eclecticism is the refusal to follow blindly one set of formulae and conventions, coupled with a determination to recognize and select from all sources those elements which are good or true in the abstract, or in practical affairs most useful ad hoc. Theoretically, therefore, eclecticism is a perfectly sound method, and the contemptuous significance which the word has acquired is due partly to the fact that many eclectics have been intellectual trimmers, sceptics or dilettanti, and partly to mere partisanship. On the other hand, eclecticism in the sphere of abstract thought is open to this main objection that, in so far as every philosophic system is, at least in theory, an integral whole, the combination of principles from hostile theories must result in an incoherent patchwork.