Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich

(Encyclopedia)Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich gāˈôrkh vĭlˈhĕlm frēˈdrĭkh hāˈgəl [key], 1770–1831, German philosopher, b. Stuttgart; son of a government clerk. Hegel has influenced many subsequent p...

semantics

(Encyclopedia)semantics [Gr.,=significant] in general, the study of the relationship between words and meanings. The empirical study of word meanings and sentence meanings in existing languages is a branch of lingu...

Boston College

(Encyclopedia)Boston College, main campus at Chestnut Hill, Mass.; coeducational; Jesuit; est. and opened 1863. Actually a university, the school's Chestnut Hill campus comprises colleges of arts and sciences and b...

Vico, Giovanni Battista

(Encyclopedia)Vico, Giovanni Battista jōvänˈnē bät-tēˈstä vēˈkō [key], 1668–1744, Italian philosopher and historian, also known as Giambattista Vico, b. Naples. In 1699, Vico became professor of rhetor...

Fallingwater

(Encyclopedia)Fallingwater, Bear Run, Pa., house designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. Fallingwater (1936–39) is an architectural tour de force of Wright's organic philosophy, whereby a building should be completely in...

Benda, Julien

(Encyclopedia)Benda, Julien zhülyăNˈ bäNdäˈ [key], 1867–1956, French novelist and critic. A humanist and rationalist, he led a sustained attack against the romantic philosophy of his time, especially that o...

Herbart, Johann Friedrich

(Encyclopedia)Herbart, Johann Friedrich yōˈhän frēˈdrĭkh hĕrˈbärt [key], 1776–1841, German philosopher and educator. Influenced by Leibniz, Kant, and Fichte, Herbart made many important contributions to ...

Young, Thomas

(Encyclopedia)Young, Thomas, 1773–1829, English physicist, physician, and Egyptologist. He established (1799) a medical practice in London and was elected (1811) to the staff of St. George's Hospital there. His l...

Rand, Ayn

(Encyclopedia)Rand, Ayn īn [key], 1905–82, American writer, b. St. Petersburg, Russia, as Alissa Rosenbaum. She came to the United States in 1926, became a citizen five years later, and worked for many years as ...

Socrates

(Encyclopedia)Socrates sŏkˈrətēz [key], 469–399 b.c., Greek philosopher of Athens. Famous for his view of philosophy as a pursuit proper and necessary to all intelligent men, he is one of the great examples o...