syncretism vs synthesis
Syncretism
- combining, merging or fusing of different beliefs and various schools of thought
- underlying unity, inclusiveness, without complete erasure
- metaphor of a hybrid offspring or a cocktail - the origins can be traced, though the purity is diluted
- commonly applied to religion, culture, politics, ethics and philosophy
Eclecticism
- does not rigidly hold to a single paradigm or source
- risk of diluting or filtering the original ideas, to a fault - taking what resonates out of its original context, and discarding what doesn’t (cultural genocide)
- unless guided, lacks convention, structure and consistency
- commonly applied to artistic expressions, architecture and philosophy
- The term comes from the Greek, literally “choosing the best”, and that from ἐκλεκτός (eklektos), “picked out, select”.
Synthesis
- the last of the three dialectical stages of development (or dialogue) ^0cf044
- a thesis, giving rise to its reaction
- an antithesis, which contradicts or negates the thesis
- a synthesis, which resolves the tension between the two
- a cognitive skill in Bloom’s taxonomy:
- building a structure or pattern from diverse elements; putting parts together to form a whole; bringing pieces of information together to form a new meaning
- more philosophical/academic than others
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