Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) world soul, Lat. anima mundi, in philosophy, term denoting a universal spirit or soul that functions as an organizing principle. While many early Greek philosophers saw the world as of one principle, ...

(Encyclopedia) Maritain, Jacques zhäk märētăNˈ [key], 1882–1973, French Neo-Thomist philosopher. He was educated at the Sorbonne and the Univ. of Heidelberg and was much influenced by the philosophy of Henri ...

(Encyclopedia) Cassirer, Ernst ĕrnst käsērˈər [key], 1874–1945, German philosopher. He was a professor at the Univ. of Hamburg from 1919 until 1933, when he went to Oxford; he later taught at Yale and Columbi...

(Encyclopedia) Cyrenaics sīrĭnāˈĭks, sĭ– [key], one of the minor schools of Greek philosophy, flourishing in the late 4th and early 3d cent. b.c. Cyrenaic philosophy taught that present individual pleasure i...

(Encyclopedia) Madhyamika mädyŭˈmĭkə [key] [Skt.,=of the middle], philosophical school of Mahayana Buddhism, based on the teaching of “emptiness” (see sunyata) and named for its adherence to the “middle p...

(Encyclopedia) Manu mŭˈno͞o [key], semilegendary Hindu lawgiver. Traditionally ascribed to him are the Laws of Manu, best known of the Sanskrit smriti texts (see Sanskrit literature). They were compiled, probably...

(Encyclopedia) Vijayanagar vēˈjəyənŭˈgər [key] [Sanskrit,=city of victory], ruined city, SE India. It was the capital (14th–16th cent.) of the Hindu Vijayanagar empire, which embraced all India S of the Kis...

(Encyclopedia) Dühring, Eugen Karl oigānˈ kärl düˈrĭng [key], 1833–1921, German philosopher and economist. He practiced law in Berlin until blindness threatened him and then became (1864) docent at the Univ...

(Encyclopedia) Porphyry pôrˈfĭrē [key], c.232–c.304, Greek scholar and Neoplatonic philosopher. He studied rhetoric under Cassius Longinus and philosophy under Plotinus. He later lectured in Rome on the philos...

(Encyclopedia) Mead, George Herbert mēd [key], 1863–1931, American philosopher and psychologist, b. South Hadley, Mass., grad. Oberlin, 1883, and Harvard, 1888, and studied in Leipzig and Berlin. He taught at the...