ECLECTICISM
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ECLECTICISM
inatics, hitherto despised, he changed into a kind of
encyclopedia of classical antiquities, which includes
extensive and much-used sources for other branches of
archeology." The addenda to this work which Eckhel
entered in his manuscript copy were edited by his
successor, Steinbuchel.
By command of Emperor Joseph II, Eckhel wrote an excellent manual, " Kurzgefasste Anfangsgrunde zur alten Numismatik" (Vienna, 17S7; 2nded., 1807). The work appeared in a Latin translation in 1799 and in a French revision in 1S25. He edited, besides, "Choix des pierres gravees du Cabinet Impt^rial". Furthermore, a number of smaller treatises still exist in manuscript form. His " Inscriptiones veteres" was used by Theodore Mommsen. He also left an exten- sive correspondence with the most prominent repre- sentatives of his branch of learning iAbh6 Barth^lemy, R. Cocchi, Cousin^ry, L. Lanzi, G. Marini, F. Seguier, and others).
Eckhel died shortly after the completion of his " Doctrina ". He was, as Bergmann wTites, " a man of firm and decided character, serious, but at the same time cheerful, indulging in sarcastic, and at times heated, attacks on cant and hterary arrogance. He used his extensive learning to correct thousands of blunders committed by other wTiters, and was modest and not at all disputatious in his controversies. He spoke as he thought and acted as he spoke." Later scholars rank Eckhel's scientific importance equally high. On the first centenary of his birth a medal was struck (by Manfredini) with the inscription, syste-
MATIS. REI. NVMARI.E. ANTIQV.E. CONDITORI. The
distich which Michael Denis dedicated to his dead friend will vindicate its own truth; —
Eckhelium brevis hora tuUt, sed diva Moneta
Scripta viri secum vivere secla jubet.
Von Bergmann, Dem Aiident^en des Abbe J H. Eckhel ia Sitznngsberichte der phil. Classe dcr kaiserl. Akademie der » is- senschaften. XXIV (1857), 296-364; Kennek £cJ:Mein Vortrag (Vienna, 1871); the same in Allaemexne Deutsche tSiog- raphie, V (1877), 633 sqq. ^, .^
IVAHL DOMANIG.
Eclecticism (Gr. Ik, \iteiv; Lat. eligere, to se- lect), a philosophical term meaning either a ten- dency of mind in a thinker to conciliate the different views or positions taken in regard to problems, or a system in philosophy which seeks the solution of its fundamental problems by selecting and uniting what it regards as true in the various philosophical schools. In the first sense, eclecticism is a characteristic of all the great philosophers, with special development in some, such as Leibniz; an element of the integral method of philosophy more or less emphasized in the divers schools. The term eclectics, however, is properly applied to those who accept Eclecticism as the true and fundamental system of philosophy. It is with Eclecticism in this strict sense that we are deaUng here. As a rule, in the history of philosophy, Eclecticism follows a period of scepticism. In presence of con- flicting doctrines regarding nature, life, and God, the human mind despairs of attaining scientific and ex- act knowledge about these important subjects. Ec- lecticism then aims at constructing a system broad and vague enough to include, or not to exclude, the prin- ciples of the divers schools, though giving at times more importance to those of one school, and appar- ently sufficient to furnish a basis for the conduct of life. In the latter period of Greek philosophy, during the two centuries preceding the Christian Era and the three cnturies following, Eclecticism is represented among the Epicureans by Asclepiades of Bithynia; among tlic Stoics by Boethus, Panetius of Rhodes, (about LSO-IIOb.c), Posidonius (about 50 b. c), and later on ijy the neo-Cynics, Demetrius and Demonax (about A. D. 150); in the New Academy by Philo of Larissa (about 80 B. c.) and Antiochus of Ascalon
(d. 68 B. c.) ; in the Peripatetic School by Andronicus
of Rhodes (about 70 b. c), the editor and commenta-
tor of the works of Aristotle, and later on by Aristocles
(about A. D. ISO), Alexander of Aphrodisias (about
A. D. 200), the physician Galen (a. d. 131-201), Por-
phyry in the third, and Simplicius in the sixth, century
of our era. The eclectic system was, by its character,
the one which was best suited to the practical mind of
the Romans. With the exception of Lucretius's
doctrine, their speculative philosophy was always and
altogether eclectic, while Stoicism dominated in their
ethical philosophy. Cicero is, in Rome, the best
representative of this school. His philosophy is a
mixture of the scepticism of the Middle Academy
with Stoicism and Peripateticism. The School of the
Sextians, with Quintus Sextius (SO b. c), Sotion, and
Celsus, was partly Stoic and Cynic, partly Pythago-
rean. Under the empire, Seneca, Epictetus the slave,
and the Emperor Marcus Aurelius combined the prin-
ciples of Stoicism with some doctrines taken from
Platonism. The neo-Platonic School of Alexandria,
in the second and third centuries after Christ, is con-
sidered by some as eclectic; but the designation is not
exact. The school borrows, indeed, many of its prin-
ciples from Pythagoreanism, Stoicism, Peripateticism,
and especially from Platonism; but all these doctrines
are dominated by and interpreted according to certain
principles of religious mysticism which make this
neo-Platonism an original though syncretic system.
The same may be said of the Christian writers of this
school who take some of their philosophical principles
from the dominant systems, but who are guided in
their choice as well as in their interpretation by the
teaching of Christian revelation.
In modern times Eclecticism has been accepted in Germany by Wolff and his disciples. It has received its most characteristic form in France in the nineteenth century from Victor Cousin (1792-1867) and his school, which is sometimes called the Spiritualistic School. Drawn away from sensualism by the teaching of Royer CoUard, Cousin seeks in the Scottish School a sufficient foundation for the chief metaphysical, moral, and religious truths. Failing in this attempt, he takes up the different doctrines then current; he is successively influenced by Maine de Biran whom he calls "the greatest metaphysician of our time", by the writings of Kant, and by personal intercourse with Schelling and Hegel; finally, he turns to the works of Plato, Plotinus, and Proclus, only to come back to Descartes and Leibniz. He then reaches the conclusion that the successive systems elaborated throughout the preceding ages contain the full development of human thought; that the complete truth is to be found in a system resulting from the happy fusion, under the gui- dance of common sense, of the fragmentary thoughts expressed by the different thinkers and schools of all ages. Four great systems, he says, express and summarize the whole development of human specu- lation: sensism, idealism, scepticism, and mysticism. Each contains a part of the truth; none possesses ex- clusively the whole truth. Human thought cannot invent any new system, nor can it neglect any of the old ones. Not the destruction of any of them, but the re- duction of all to one, will put us in possession of the truth.
There is, indeed, something true in Eclecticism. It would be folly for each thinker to deliberately ignore all that has been said and taught before him; such a method would render progress impossible. The experience and knowledge acquired by past ages is a factor in the development of human thought. The history of philosophy is useful; it places at our disposal the truths already discovered, and by showing us the errors into which philosophy has fallen, it guards us against them and against the principles or methods which have caused them. This is the ele- ment of value contained in the system. But Eclec- ticism errs when it substitutes for personal reflection
