Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Rodchenko, Aleksandr. 1891–1956, Russian painter, sculptor, photographer, and designer, b. St. Petersburg. One of the most important and versatile avant-garde artists to emerge after the Russian Rev...

(Encyclopedia) Satanism. The cult of Satan, or Satan worship, is in part a survival of the ancient worship of demons and in part a revolt against Christianity or the church. It rose about the 12th cent. in Europe an...

(Encyclopedia) Rao, Raja rou [key], 1909–2006, Indian novelist, b. Hassan, Mysore (now Karnataka), as Raja. Rao took his surname as an adult, and was educated in India and France and for many years divided his ti...

(Encyclopedia) electroconvulsive therapy in psychiatry, treatment of mood disorders by means of electricity; the broader term “shock therapy” also includes the use of chemical agents. The therapeutic possibiliti...

(Encyclopedia) fuzzy logic, a multivalued (as opposed to binary) logic developed to deal with imprecise or vague data. Classical logic holds that everything can be expressed in binary terms: 0 or 1, black or white, ...

(Encyclopedia) Ethiopic ēthēŏpˈĭk [key], extinct language of Ethiopia belonging to the North Ethiopic group of the South Semitic (or Ethiopic) languages, which, in turn, belong to the Semitic subfamily of the A...

(Encyclopedia) executive, one who carries out the will or plan of another person or of a group. In government, the term refers not only to the chief administrative officer but to all others who execute the laws and ...

(Encyclopedia) Einstein, Albert īnˈstīn [key], 1879–1955, American theoretical physicist, known for the formulation of the relativity theory, b. Ulm, Germany. He is recognized as one of the greatest physicists ...

(Encyclopedia) Cézanne, Paul pōl sāzänˈ [key], 1839–1906, French painter, b. Aix-en-Provence. Cézanne was the leading figure in the revolution toward abstraction in modern painting. Cézanne's influence on...