Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Lanzmann, Claude, 1925–2018, French filmmaker and journalist, b. Paris. While his Jewish family was in hiding in rural France during World War II, Lanzmann joined the Resistance and fought the Nazis...

(Encyclopedia) modernism, in religion, a general movement in the late 19th and 20th cent. that tried to reconcile historical Christianity with the findings of modern science and philosophy. Modernism arose mainly fr...

(Encyclopedia) Comte, Auguste ōgüstˈ kôNt [key], 1798–1857, French philosopher, founder of the school of philosophy known as positivism, educated in Paris. From 1818 to 1824 he contributed to the publications ...

(Encyclopedia) idealism, the attitude that places special value on ideas and ideals as products of the mind, in comparison with the world as perceived through the senses. In art idealism is the tendency to represent...

(Encyclopedia) Schweitzer, Albert älˈbĕrt shvīˈtsər [key], 1875–1965, Alsatian theologian, musician, and medical missionary. Determined to become a medical missionary, he obtained a doctorate in medicine at ...

(Encyclopedia) theosophy thēŏsˈəfē [key] [Gr.,=divine wisdom], philosophical system having affinities with mysticism and claiming insight into the nature of God and the world through direct knowledge, philosoph...

(Encyclopedia) Russell, Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3d Earl, 1872–1970, British philosopher, mathematician, and social reformer, b. Trelleck, Wales. As with his philosophical stance, Russell's positions on ...

(Encyclopedia) caste [Port., casta=basket], ranked groups based on heredity within rigid systems of social stratification, especially those that constitute Hindu India. Some scholars, in fact, deny that true caste s...

(Encyclopedia) Lomonosov, Mikhail Vasilyevich mēkhəyēlˈ vəsēˈlyəvĭch ləmənôˈsəf [key], 1711–65, Russian scientist, scholar, and writer, an outstanding figure in 18th-century Russia. Lomonosov was the...

(Encyclopedia) Ishibashi, Tanzan, 1884–1973, Japanese politician, b. Tokyo. The son of a Buddhist priest, he studied philosophy at Waseda Univ. (grad. 1907) and became a journalist. He was appointed (1946) ministe...