I was invited to present my paper, "Eclecticism, the Architecture of Liberal Democracy" at the International Society of Philosophy in Architecture's 4th International Conference whose focus was on Building as Service. The conference was held in Colorado Springs, Colorado between July 26-28, 2018. The purpose of my paper was to demonstrate that the rise of eclecticism was the natural result of the rise of a liberal democratic society and why we should embrace it in architecture as it already exists in all other art forms. I show how choice in architectural style first came about during the Renaissance and continually expanded as western societies became progressively more liberal and democratic. I conclude that eclecticism should be embraced once again as it is unavoidable in an open and diverse society.
