Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

199 results found

Protagoras

(Encyclopedia)Protagoras prōtăgˈərəs [key], c.490–c.421 b.c., Greek philosopher of Abdera, one of the more distinguished Sophists. He taught for a time in Athens, where he was a friend of Pericles and knew S...

Rowson, Susanna Haswell

(Encyclopedia)Rowson, Susanna Haswell rouˈsən [key], 1762–1824, American author and actress, b. England. She was brought to America as a young child, but after the Revolution, the family returned to England. He...

Grant, Cary

(Encyclopedia)Grant, Cary, 1904–86, British movie actor, b. Bristol as Archibald Alexander Leach. He began on stage in 1923 and made his first film in 1932. An almost immediate hit, Grant was a leading star until...

Hägerstrom, Axel

(Encyclopedia)Hägerstrom, Axel äkˈsəl hägˈərstrôm [key], 1868–1939, Swedish philosopher. He was a student (1886–93) at Uppsala Univ. and taught there from 1893 until his retirement in 1933. The son of a...

Hallaj, Hussein ibn Mansur al-

(Encyclopedia)Hallaj, Hussein ibn Mansur al- ho͞osānˈ ĭbn mänso͝orˈ [key], 857–922, Arabic-speaking Persian Muslim mystic and poet popularly known among Muslims as “the martyr of mystical love.” Born a...

Gorgias

(Encyclopedia)Gorgias gôrˈjēəs [key], c.485–c.380 b.c., Greek Sophist. From his native city, Leontini, Sicily, he was sent as an ambassador to Athens, where he settled to teach and practice rhetoric. Gorgias ...

Van Halen, Eddie

(Encyclopedia)Van Halen, Eddie (Edward Lodewijk Van Halen), 1955–2020, American rock musician and song writer, b. Amsterdam, Netherlands; his family moved to California when he was young. He and brother Alex form...

Schlick, Moritz

(Encyclopedia)Schlick, Moritz mōˈrĭts shlĭk [key], 1882–1936, German philosopher, b. Berlin, grad. Univ. of Berlin (1904). He taught at Rostock and Kiel before he became (1922) professor of the philosophy of ...

silenus

(Encyclopedia)silenus sīlēˈnəs [key], in Greek mythology, part bestial and part human creature of the forests and mountains. Part of Dionysus' entourage, the sileni are usually represented as aged satyrs—drun...

Romero, Francisco

(Encyclopedia)Romero, Francisco fränsēsˈkō rōmāˈrō [key], 1891–1962, Argentine philosopher and essayist, b. Seville, Spain. One of the most prominent philosophers of Latin America, he was the leading repr...