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Todorov, Tzvetan

(Encyclopedia)Todorov, Tzvetan, 1939–2017, Bulgarian-French literary theorist, historian of ideas, and sociologist, b. Sofia, Bulgaria, Ph.D. Univ. of Paris, 1966. He joined (1968) the National Center for Scienti...

mandorla

(Encyclopedia)mandorla mänˈdôrlä [key], [Ital.,=almond], a medieval Christian artistic convention by which an oval or almond-shaped area or series of lines surrounds a deity, most commonly Jesus. The mandorla i...

Arc de Triomphe de l'Étoile

(Encyclopedia)Arc de Triomphe de l'Étoile ärk də trēôNfˈ də lātwälˈ [key], imposing triumphal arch in Paris standing on an elevation at the end of the Avenue des Champs Élysées and in the center of the ...

kiva

(Encyclopedia)kiva kēˈvə [key], large, underground ceremonial chamber, peculiar to the ancient and modern Pueblo. The modern kiva probably evolved from the slab houses (i.e., storage pits and dwellings that were...

Croce, Benedetto

(Encyclopedia)Croce, Benedetto bānādĕtˈtō krôˈchā [key], 1866–1952, Italian philosopher, historian, and critic. He lived mostly in Naples, devoting himself to studying and writing. He founded and edited (...

empiricism

(Encyclopedia)empiricism ĕmpĭrˈĭsĭzəm [key] [Gr.,=experience], philosophical doctrine that all knowledge is derived from experience. For most empiricists, experience includes inner experience—reflection upo...

Hampshire, Sir Stuart Newton

(Encyclopedia)Hampshire, Sir Stuart Newton, 1914–2004, British philosopher, grad. Oxford. He taught at Oxford, University College (London), London Univ., and Princeton before joining (1984, emeritus after 1990) t...

Maimonides

(Encyclopedia)Maimonides mīˈmən [key], 1135–1204, Jewish scholar, physician, and philosopher, the most influential Jewish thinker of the Middle Ages, b. Córdoba, Spain, d. Cairo. He is sometimes called Rambam...

Turing, Alan Mathison

(Encyclopedia)Turing, Alan Mathison, 1912–54, British mathematician and computer theorist. While studying at Cambridge he began work in predicate logic that led to a proof (1937) that some mathematical problems a...

Abe, Kobo

(Encyclopedia)Abe, Kobo kōˈbō äˈbā [key], pseud. of Kimifusa Abe, 1924–93, Japanese novelist and dramatist. Although Abe trained as a doctor, he never practiced medi...