Concept in Definition ABC

Eclectic is a qualifying adjective used to refer to situations, phenomena or personalities that are characterized by having very different elements or traits from each other, without this becoming a problem or a pathology but rather as a way to combine diverse traits and wide. Unlike what happens with some phenomena or with some types of personalities that are very extreme, it Eclectic always means taking the best of the different elements present to make it a new and only. The eclectic can easily be made visible in the think, to dress, in the style of the person, in the design and interior decoration, etc.

Eclecticism is a process by which different traits or characteristics are presented among themselves, which normally they would not be combined but they can also give a new and different style, phenomenon or reality to the rest. The idea of ​​eclectic is used in most cases with a positive sense since it is assumed that one who maintains a style, a way of thinking, a way of facing reality eclectic does not want to be like any other person but builds her own life from specifically selected elements, even though that combination of elements is not the common.

However, in some cases it can also have a negative meaning when talking about things that are not usually combined together. This is especially visible in the field of political ideas or ideologies, since there are elements that are contradictory to each other in each current of opinion. thought and to say that a person is eclectic could mean that his choices or expressions do not make sense because they are combined without any reason. The same can happen with personal style since for those connoisseurs on the subject combine certain elements of a clothing style, for example, with elements of an opposing style is not always right viewed.

Eclecticism, philosophy greek

It should be noted that the concept of eclectic comes from eclecticism, as it has been called at the instigation of philosophy to school philosophical that arose in Greece and that was characterized by choice of philosophical conceptions, ideas, points of view and even evaluations of other philosophical schools, but that despite coming from other thoughts can be synthesized in a coherent way by the compatibility that present. However, in some cases there may be oppositions that do not make up an organic whole.

The philosopher, jurist and politician Marco Tulio Cicero he was the most prominent representative of eclecticism and on his part he sought the conciliation of various theories and currents taking from each the most important in order to break the contradictions that could arise from priori. For example, he knew how to combine theories of Stoicism, Peripatetics and Skepticism.

Artistic eclecticism

In the fine arts, eclecticism is a mixed type style whose aspects arise from various sources and styles and which was never constituted as a specific style. That is, in a job only either in the field of painting, the architecture or the decorative and graphic arts in which different influences will be combined.

The archaeologist e historian German-born Johann Joachim Winckelmann It was he who used the concept of eclectic for the first time at the request of wanting to single out the artistic work of the painter Caracci, who would incorporate elements of classical art into his works.

Meanwhile, in the 18th century, the English painter Sir Joshua Reynolds who at that time directed the Royal Academy of Arts in London, was one of the staunch defenders of eclecticism. In one of the many speeches he made at the Academy, he was able to express that the plastic artist should use the art of antiquity as a magazine of common characteristics and take from it the elements that most please.