Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

William of Occam

(Encyclopedia)William of Occam or Ockham both: ŏkˈəm [key], c.1285–c.1349, English scholastic philosopher. A Franciscan, Occam studied and taught at Oxford from c.1310 until 1324, when he was summoned to the p...

Inquisition

(Encyclopedia)Inquisition ĭnˌkwĭzĭshˈən [key], tribunal of the Roman Catholic Church established for the investigation of heresy. The Spanish Inquisition was independent of the medieval Inquisition. It was...

Twain, Mark

(Encyclopedia)Twain, Mark, pseud. of Samuel Langhorne Clemens, 1835–1910, American author, b. Florida, Mo. As humorist, narrator, and social observer, Twain is unsurpassed in American literature. His novel The Ad...

New Deal

(Encyclopedia)New Deal, in U.S. history, term for the domestic reform program of the administration of Franklin Delano Roosevelt; it was first used by Roosevelt in his speech accepting the Democratic party nominati...

Wittgenstein, Ludwig Josef Johann

(Encyclopedia)Wittgenstein, Ludwig Josef Johann loŏtˈvĭkh yōˈzĕf yōˈhän vĭtˈgənshtīn [key], 1889–1951, Austrian philosopher, b. Vienna. The second phase of Wittgenstein's philosophy commenced with ...

Proust, Marcel

(Encyclopedia)Proust, Marcel pro͞ost [key], 1871–1922, French novelist, b. Paris. He is one of the great literary figures of the modern age. Born to wealthy bourgeois parents, he suffered delicate health as a c...

Williams, Tennessee

(Encyclopedia)Williams, Tennessee (Thomas Lanier Williams), 1911–83, American dramatist, b. Columbus, Miss., grad. State Univ. of Iowa, 1938. One of America's foremost 20th-century playwrights and the author of m...

Sontag, Susan

(Encyclopedia)Sontag, Susan sŏnˈtäg [key], 1933–2004, American writer and critic, b. New York City. She grew up in Arizona and California, studied philosophy at the Univ. of Chicago, Harvard, and Oxford, absor...

Renoir, Pierre Auguste

(Encyclopedia)Renoir, Pierre Auguste rənwärˈ [key], 1841–1919, French impressionist painter and sculptor, b. Limoges. Renoir went to work at the age of 13 in Paris as a decorator of factory-made porcelain, co...

Pollock, Jackson

(Encyclopedia)Pollock, Jackson, 1912–56, American painter, b. Cody, Wyo. He studied (1929–31) in New York City, mainly under Thomas Hart Benton, but he was more strongly influenced by A. P. Ryder and the Mexica...
 

Browse by Subject