Poznan Vp6z-,nan\ German Posen Vpoz- 3 n\ City (pop., 2000 est.: 574,896), west-central Poland. Located on the Warta River, Poznan is one of the oldest cities in Poland,
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"Greek Slave," marble statue by Hiram Powers, 1843; in the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
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Practical Learning School ► Prague Spring I 1539
dating from the 9th century ad. It reached the height of prosperity as a trade centre from the 15th to the 17th century but declined after the Sec¬ ond Northern War. In 1793 Poznan was annexed to Prussia, intensifying a Germanization that had begun in the 13th century. In 1918 it reverted to Poland. During World War II it was occupied by the Germans and suf¬ fered extensive damage. Rebuilt after the war, it has become the admin¬ istrative, industrial, and cultural centre of western Poland. It is also an academic centre with scientific and literary institutes. Its varied industries include textile mills, metallurgical works, and chemical plants.
Practical Learning School or Silhak School of thought that arose in 18th-century Korea, dedicated to a practical approach to statecraft. It attacked Neo-Confucianism, particularly its formalism and concern with ritual. Members of the school originated many ideas for social reform and the development of farming. Notable contributors include Yi Ik (1681— 1763), who wrote on land reform and the abolition of class barriers, and Pak Chi-won (1737-1805), who advocated the development of commerce and technology. The school contributed to the wave of modernization that occurred after the introduction of Western culture into Korea in the late 19th century.
practical reason Rational capacity by which (rational) agents guide their conduct. In Immanuel Kant’s moral philosophy, it is defined as the capacity of a rational being to act according to principles (i.e., according to the conception of laws). Unlike the ethical intuitionists (see intuition- ism), Kant never held that practical reason intuits the rightness of particu¬ lar actions or moral principles. For him, practical reason was basically formal rather than material, a framework of formative principles rather than a source of specific rules. This is why he put such stress on his first formulation of the categorical imperative. Lacking any insight into the moral realm, humans can only ask themselves if what they are proposing to do has the formal character of law, namely, the character of being the same for all persons similarly circumstanced.
Prado \'pra-do\ Museum Spain’s national art museum, housing the world’s greatest collection of Spanish painting as well as other European works. Founded in Madrid in 1818 by Ferdinand VII, it was opened to the public in 1819 as the Royal Museum of Painting. Its holdings were formed over three centuries from the various royal collections of the Habsburg and Bourbon monarchs in Spain. In 1868 it became the National Museum of the Prado after the exile of Isabella II. In 1872 it acquired many notable paintings formerly owned by Spanish convents and monasteries. It owns the outstanding collections of the works of El Greco, Diego Velazquez, and Francisco de Goya and numerous works by other Spanish masters such as Jose de Ribera and Francisco Zurbaran. Among its other holdings are col¬ lections of Greco-Roman statuary and many Flemish and Italian master¬ pieces.
Praeneste \pre-'nes-te\ modem Palestrina Ancient city, Latium, cen¬ tral Italy. Praeneste was located on a spur of the Apennines. Founded before the 8th century bc, it saw many battles with Rome before becoming part of the Roman Empire. It was a major centre for the cult of the goddess Fortuna, whose sanctuary and temple oracle were surrounded by an immense complex of buildings. It became a favourite summer resort of wealthy Romans, including Augustus, Hadrian, and Puny the Younger. The modern town is the birthplace of composer Giovanni Pierluigi da Pal¬ estrina.
praetor Vpre-torN In ancient Rome, a judicial officer who had broad authority in cases of equity, was responsible for producing public games, and, in the absence of a consul, exercised extensive authority in the gov¬ ernment. After a one-year term, a praetor typically went on to govern a province. Originally only a patrician magistrate could be a praetor, but from c. 337 bc, the position was also open to plebeians. The number of praetors increased to eight by the 1st century bc, two for civil matters and six for specific courts. It continued to vary under different government leaders and emperors; by the late empire, only the city praetor for public games remained.
Praetorian \pre-'tor-e-3n\ Guard (Latin, cohors praetoria) House¬ hold troops of the Roman emperors. In the 2nd century bc they were bodyguards for Roman generals, their name taken from the general’s tent ( praetorium ). During the civil wars military leaders had personal body¬ guards, but in 27 bc Augustus created a permanent corps to guard the emperor and stationed its members around Rome. In ad 23, with Sejanus as commander, they gained political influence; from then on, they usually had an important voice in the appointment of emperors. They were respon¬
sible for the accession of Claudius (41), the disorders of 68-69, the lynch¬ ing of Domitian’s murderers (97), and the murder of Elagabalus (222). Constantine I disbanded the Praetorian Guard in 312.
Pragmatic Sanction (1713) Decree by Emperor Charles VI requiring the undivided descent of his Habsburg domains. It stipulated that his heri¬ tage go to his eldest son or, in the absence of a son, to his eldest daugh¬ ter. It became law in 1720 within the Habsburg states, and much of Charles’s later reign was directed toward securing acceptance of the sanc¬ tion from the other European powers. Since his son died soon after birth (1716), his daughter Maria Theresa became his heir. On Charles’s death (1740), the sanction was contested by Prussia and Bavaria, which led to the War of the Austrian Succession.
Pragmatic Sanction of Bourges VbUrzh\ (July 7, 1438) Decree issued by King Charles VII of France after the Council of Basel, confirm¬ ing the supremacy of a council over the pope. The decree also confirmed the Council’s assertion of the “liberties” of the Gallican Church, restrict¬ ing the rights of the pope and in many cases making his jurisdiction sub¬ ject to the king’s. Revoked by Louis XI in 1461, the Pragmatic Sanction was reasserted periodically until the 16th century.
pragmatics In linguistics and philosophy, the study of the use of natu¬ ral language in communication; more generally, the study of the relations between languages and their users. It is sometimes defined in contrast with linguistic semantics, which can be described as the study of the rule sys¬ tems that determine the literal meanings of linguistic expressions. Prag¬ matics is then the study of how both literal and nonliteral aspects of communicated linguistic meaning are determined by principles that refer to the physical or social context (broadly construed) in which language is used. Among these aspects are conversational and conventional “impli- catures” (e.g., “John has three sons” conversationally implicates that John has no more than three sons; “He was poor but honest” conventionally implicates an unspecified contrast between poverty and honesty). Other aspects include metaphor and other tropes and speech acts.
pragmatism Philosophical movement first given systematic expres¬ sion by Charles Sanders Peirce and William James and later taken up and transformed by John Dewey. Pragmatists emphasize the practical function of knowledge as an instrument for adapting to reality and controlling it. Pragmatism agrees with empiricism in its emphasis on the priority of expe¬ rience over A priori reasoning. Whereas truth had traditionally been explained in terms of correspondence with reality or in terms of coher¬ ence (see coherentism), pragmatism holds that truth is to be found in the process of verification. Pragmatists interpret ideas as instruments and plans of action rather than as images of reality; more specifically, they are suggestions and anticipations of possible conduct, hypotheses or forecasts of what will result from a given action, or ways of organizing behaviour. See also W.V.O. Quine; Richard Rorty.