Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Kant, Immanuel ĭmänˈo͞oĕl känt [key], 1724–1804, German metaphysician, one of the greatest figures in philosophy, b. Königsberg (now Kaliningrad, Russia). The impact of Kant's work has be...

(Encyclopedia) Spinoza, Baruch or Benedict spinōˈzə [key], 1632–77, Dutch philosopher, b. Amsterdam. Politically, Spinoza and Hobbes again share assumptions about the social contract: Right derives from p...

(Encyclopedia) Nobel Prizes

(Encyclopedia) physics, branch of science traditionally defined as the study of matter, energy, and the relation between them; it was called natural philosophy until the late 19th cent. and is still known by this na...

(Encyclopedia) nucleus, in physics, the extremely dense central core of an atom. Following the discovery of radioactivity by A. H. Becquerel in 1896, Ernest Rutherford identified two types of radiation given off b...

(Encyclopedia) psychology, science or study of the thought processes and behavior of humans and other animals in their interaction with the environment. Psychologists study processes of sense perception, thinking, l...

(Encyclopedia) Berlin bûrˌlĭnˈ, Ger. bĕrlēnˈ [key], city (2021 est. pop. 3,567,000), capital ...

(Encyclopedia) German literature, works in the German language by German, Austrian, Austro-Hungarian, and Swiss authors, as well as by writers of German in other countries. The postwar decades saw a gradual litera...

(Encyclopedia)  CE5 elementary particles, the most basic physical constituents of the universe. The first subatomic particle to be discovered was the electron, identified in 1897 by J. J. Thomson. After the...

(Encyclopedia)  CE5 Austria ôˈstrēə [key], Ger. Österreich [eastern march], officially Republic of Austria, federal republic (2020 est. pop. 8,917,000), 32,374 sq mi (83,849 sq km...