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sociology

(Encyclopedia)sociology, scientific study of human social behavior. As the study of humans in their collective aspect, sociology is concerned with all group activities—economic, social, political, and religious. ...

Merleau-Ponty, Maurice

(Encyclopedia)Merleau-Ponty, Maurice mōrēsˈ mĕrlōˈ-pôNtēˈ [key], 1908–61, French philosopher. He graduated (1931) from the École normale supérieure, Paris, and after World War II taught at the Univ. of...

naturalism, in philosophy

(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 ...

Laski, Harold Joseph

(Encyclopedia)Laski, Harold Joseph lăsˈkē [key], 1893–1950, British political scientist, economist, author, and lecturer. A graduate of New College, Oxford, he taught at McGill Univ. (1914–16) and Harvard (1...

social science

(Encyclopedia)social science, term for any or all of the branches of study that deal with humans in their social relations. Often these studies are referred to in the plural as the social sciences. Although human s...

Trier

(Encyclopedia)Trier trēr [key], Latin Augusta Treverorum, city (1994 pop. 99,183), Rhineland-Palatinate, SW Germany, a port on the Moselle (Ger. Mosel) River, near the Luxembourg border. It is also known, in Engli...

Dittersdorf, Karl Ditters von

(Encyclopedia)Dittersdorf, Karl Ditters von dĭtˈərs fən dĭtˈərsdôrf [key], 1739–99, Austrian composer and violinist. He was a successful opera and symphony composer in Vienna and an important precursor of...

Drude, Paul Karl Ludwig

(Encyclopedia)Drude, Paul Karl Ludwig poul kärl lo͝otˈvĭkh dro͞oˈdə [key], 1863–1906, German physicist. Drude first experimented with the physical determinants of optical constants, measuring the optical c...

Hecker, Friedrich Franz Karl

(Encyclopedia)Hecker, Friedrich Franz Karl frēˈdrĭkh fränts kärl hĕkˈər [key], 1811–81, German revolutionary. A lawyer, he was a leader of the radical republicans in the grand duchy of Baden and during th...

Nesselrode, Karl Robert, Count

(Encyclopedia)Nesselrode, Karl Robert, Count kärl rōˈbĕrt nyĕsĕlrôˈdyĭ [key], 1780–1862, Russian statesman of German descent, b. Lisbon. He entered diplomatic service under Czar Alexander I, became state...