Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

epistemology

(Encyclopedia)epistemology ĭpĭsˌtəmŏlˈəjē [key] [Gr.,=knowledge or science], the branch of philosophy that is directed toward theories of the sources, nature, and limits of knowledge. Since the 17th cent. e...

North, Frederick North, 8th Baron

(Encyclopedia)North, Frederick North, 8th Baron, 1732–92, British statesman, best known as Lord North. He entered Parliament in 1754 and became a junior lord of the treasury (1759), privy councilor (1766), and ch...

Coppard, Alfred Edgar

(Encyclopedia)Coppard, Alfred Edgar kŏpˈärd [key], 1878–1957, English author. Almost entirely self-educated, he worked at several clerical positions. His tales, written in a poetic and fanciful vein, include A...

Cornu, Marie Alfred

(Encyclopedia)Cornu, Marie Alfred märēˈ älfrĕdˈ kôrnüˈ [key], 1841–1902, French physicist. From 1867 he was professor at the École polytechnique, Paris. He measured the velocity of light and made import...

Cortot, Alfred Denis

(Encyclopedia)Cortot, Alfred Denis älfrĕdˈ dənēˈ kôrtōˈ [key], 1877–1962, French pianist and conductor. Among his appearances as a conductor were those at Bayreuth (1898–1901). He joined the faculty of...

Fowler, William Alfred

(Encyclopedia)Fowler, William Alfred, 1911–95, American nuclear astrophysicist, b. Pittsburgh. While a professor at the California Institute of Technology, Fowler studied how chemical elements are formed in nucle...

Henty, George Alfred

(Encyclopedia)Henty, George Alfred, 1832–1902, English author. Initially a war correspondent, he later wrote boys' adventure tales that were very popular. Henty's books all focused on an ideal of manly virtue. Th...

Hallowell, Alfred Irving

(Encyclopedia)Hallowell, Alfred Irving hălˈəwĕlˌ [key], 1892–1974, American anthropologist, b. Philadelphia, grad. Univ. of Pennsylvania (B.S., 1914; A.M., 1920; Ph.D., 1924). He was a professor of anthropol...

Hershey, Alfred Day

(Encyclopedia)Hershey, Alfred Day, 1908–1997, American microbiologist, b. Owosso, Mich., Ph.D., Michigan State College (now Michigan State Univ.), 1934. Hershey was a professor at the Washington Univ. School of M...

Browse by Subject