(Eclecter), a name given to some ancient philosophers, who, without attaching themselves to any particular sect, took whatever they judged good and solid from each; and hence their denomination, from ὁκ and ἀγγειον to choose. Laertius observes that they were also, for the same reason, denominated analogetici; but that they call themselves philalethes, or lovers of truth. The chief or founder of the eclectics was Potamon of Alexandria, who lived under Augustus and Tiberius, and who, weary of doubting of all things with the Sceptics and Pyrrhonists, formed the Eclectic sect, called by Vossius the Eclectic.

Towards the close of the second century, a sect arose in the Christian Church under the denomination of Eclectics, or modern Platonists, professing to make truth the only object of their inquiry, and to be ready to adopt from all the different systems and sects such tenets as they thought agreeable to it. However, they preferred Plato to the other philosophers, and looked upon his opinions concerning God, the human soul, and things invisible, as conformable to the spirit and genius of the Christian doctrine. One of the principal patrons of this system was Ammonius Saccas, who laid the foundation of that sect afterwards distinguished by the name of the New Platonists in the Alexandrian school.

There was also a certain ancient sect of physicians called Eclectics, of whom Archigenes, who lived under Trajan, was the chief, and selected from the opinions of all the other sects those which he considered best and most rational. Hence they are called eclectics, and their prescriptions medicinae eclecticæ.