Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Ratzel, Friedrich frēˈdrĭkh rätˈsəl [key], 1844–1904, German geographer. He traveled as a journalist in Europe (1869) and in Cuba, Mexico, and the United States (1872–75). Thereafter he devo...

(Encyclopedia) Geiger, Johannes Wilhelm (Hans Geiger) gīˈgər [key], 1882–1945, German physicist. Geiger received a doctorate in physics at Erlangen in 1906, then went to Manchester, where he assisted British c...

(Encyclopedia) Blumenbach, Johann Friedrich yōhänˈ frēˈdrĭkh blo͞oˈmənbäkh [key], 1752–1840, German naturalist and anthropologist. He introduced and developed the science of comparative anatomy in German...

(Encyclopedia) egoism ēˈgōĭzəm [key], in ethics, the doctrine that the ends and motives of human conduct are, or should be, the good of the individual agent. It is opposed to altruism, which holds the criterion...

(Encyclopedia) Schönbein, Christian Friedrich krĭsˈtyän frēˈdrĭkh shönˈbīn [key], 1799–1868, German chemist. From 1828 he taught at the Univ. of Basel (as professor from 1835). He discovered ozone (1840)...

(Encyclopedia) Bernhardi, Friedrich von frēˈdrĭkh fən bĕrnhärˈdē [key], 1849–1930, German general and military writer. His book Germany and the Next War (1912, tr. 1912) was widely publicized by the Allies...

(Encyclopedia) Murnau, Friedrich W. frēˈdrĭkh mo͝orˈnou [key], 1889–1931, German film director, b. as Friedrich W. Plumpe. He began directing films in Germany in 1919 and went to Hollywood in 1927. Murnau's f...

(Encyclopedia) Diez, Friedrich Christian frēˈdrĭkh krĭsˈtyän dēts [key], 1794–1876, German philologist. A professor at Bonn, Diez is noted as one of the founders of the science of Romanic philology. His gre...

(Encyclopedia) naturalism, in philosophy, a position that attempts to explain all phenomena and account for all values by means of strictly natural (as opposed to supernatural) categories. The particular meaning of ...

(Encyclopedia) Wundt, Wilhelm Max vĭlˈhĕlm mäks vo͝ont [key], 1832–1920, German physiologist and psychologist. From 1875 he taught at Leipzig, where he founded the first laboratory for experimental psychology...