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natural rights

(Encyclopedia)natural rights, political theory that maintains that an individual enters into society with certain basic rights and that no government can deny these rights. The modern idea of natural rights grew ou...

Khodorkovsky, Mikhail Borisovich

(Encyclopedia)Khodorkovsky, Mikhail Borisovich mēkhəyēlˈ bərēˈsəvĭch kōdôrkôfˈskē [key], 1963–, Russian business executive. In the waning years of the Soviet Union, he ran a computer import business...

Blake, William

(Encyclopedia)Blake, William, 1757–1827, English poet and artist, b. London. Although he exerted a great influence on English romanticism, Blake defies characterization by school, movement, or even period. At the...

Norris, John

(Encyclopedia)Norris, John, 1657–1711, English clergyman and philosopher. As the most prominent follower of Malebranche he wrote, in exposition of that philosopher's system, An Essay towards the Theory of the Ide...

levitation

(Encyclopedia)levitation lĕvĭtāˈshən [key], the raising of a human or other body in the air without mechanical aid. The idea is ancient; holy men, both pagan and Christian, were reputed to have had the power o...

artificial languages

(Encyclopedia)artificial languages, languages that are invented by one or more human beings as opposed to languages that develop naturally among peoples. Examples of artificial languages are Volapük, Esperanto, an...

Myers, Frederic William Henry

(Encyclopedia)Myers, Frederic William Henry mīˈərz [key], 1843–1901, English essayist and poet. His works include the poem St. Paul (1867) and Essays, Classical and Modern (1883). He is well known for his inve...

Krebs, Edwin Gerhard

(Encyclopedia)Krebs, Edwin Gerhard, 1918–2009, American biochemist, b. Lansing, Iowa. He and fellow Univ. of Washington professor Edmond Fischer discovered a biological regulatory mechanism, reversible protein ph...

Krylov, Ivan Andreyevich

(Encyclopedia)Krylov, Ivan Andreyevich ēvänˈ əndrāˈəvĭch krĭlôfˈ [key], 1769–1844, Russian fabulist. Some of his more than 200 fables were adapted from Aesop and La Fontaine, but most were original. A ...

Sauer, Carl Ortwin

(Encyclopedia)Sauer, Carl Ortwin, 1889–1975, American geographer, b. Warrenton, Mo., grad. Univ. of Chicago (Ph.D., 1915). Sauer was a professor for over 50 years at the Univ. of California at Berkeley, where he ...