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teleology

(Encyclopedia)teleology tĕlˌēŏlˈəjē, tēˌlē– [key], in philosophy, term applied to any system attempting to explain a series of events in terms of ends, goals, or purposes. It is opposed to mechanism, th...

Goldschmidt, Richard Benedikt

(Encyclopedia)Goldschmidt, Richard Benedikt, 1878–1958, American zoologist and geneticist, b. Germany, Ph.D. Univ. of Heidelberg, 1902. Goldschmidt taught at the Univ. of Munich (1903–14) and was at the Kaiser ...

Holmström, Bengt

(Encyclopedia)Holmström, Bengt, 1949–, Finnish economist, b. Helsinki, Ph.D. Stanford, 1978. He has spent almost all his career in academia, at Northwestern Univ. (1979–83), Yale (1983–94), and the Massachus...

Huygens, Christiaan

(Encyclopedia)Huygens, Christiaan krĭsˈtyän hoiˈgəns [key], 1629–95, Dutch mathematician and physicist; son of Constantijn Huygens. He improved telescopic lenses and discovered (1655) a satellite of Saturn a...

Ehrenfest, Paul

(Encyclopedia)Ehrenfest, Paul poul āˈrənfĕst [key], 1880–1933, Austrian physicist. In 1904, Ehrenfest received his doctorate in theoretical physics in Vienna and married the Russian mathematician Tatyana Alex...

Buridan, Jean

(Encyclopedia)Buridan, Jean byo͝orˈĭdən, Fr. zhäN bürēdäNˈ [key], d. c.1358, French scholastic philosopher. Rector of the Univ. of Paris, he was a follower of William of Occam and a nominalist. Buridan pro...

Pigou, Arthur Cecil

(Encyclopedia)Pigou, Arthur Cecil pĭˈgo͞o [key], 1877–1959, British economist, grad. King's College, Cambridge. He was a lecturer at University College, London, and at Cambridge. He was professor of political ...

Vulcan, in astronomy

(Encyclopedia)Vulcan, in astronomy, hypothetical planet whose existence was proposed by Le Verrier to explain part of the advance of the perihelion of Mercury, not all of which could be accounted for by gravitation...

Adler, Alfred

(Encyclopedia)Adler, Alfred ädˈlər [key], 1870–1937, Austrian psychologist, founder of the school of individual psychology. Although one of Sigmund Freud's earlier associates, he rejected the Freudian emphasis...

Bluntschli, Johann Kaspar

(Encyclopedia)Bluntschli, Johann Kaspar yōˈhän käsˈpär blo͝onchˈlē [key], 1808–81, Swiss jurist and political scientist. Trained at the Univ. of Berlin, he taught law at Zürich, Munich, and Heidelberg. ...

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