ABSTRACT
Modern eclecticism was something very different from its ancient namesake, although that name was often taken in vain. For one thing the new eclecticism was developed within a Christian framework, and for another it shunned the irrational and impious 'syncretism' that gave ancient eclecticism such an unfortunate reputation. Modern eclectic philosophy proclaimed not only its freedom from authoritarian and dogmatic thinking but also the superior value of history as the royal road to enlightened piety and learned reason. Christian Thomasius, according to Diderot, has a place 'among the reformers of philosophy and the founders of a revived eclecticism'. The strength of eclecticism was that it tried to accommodate this entire agenda; its weakness was its less-than-critical faith that these goals were in keeping with reason, the new science, and Christian religion. In any case it was in the scholarly arena occupied by eclecticism that the history of thought and culture was most actively pursued in the early modern period.
