Haakon Vho-konX VII orig. Christian Frederik Carl Georg Valdemar Axel (b. Aug. 3, 1872,
Charlottenlund, Den.—d. Sept. 21, 1957, Oslo, Nor.)
King of Norway (1905-57). Bom prince Carl of Den¬ mark, he was offered the Norwegian crown after the restoration of the country’s independence in 1905. He accepted only after receiving approval by a plebi¬ scite, and he took the Old Norse name of Haa¬ kon. In World War II he fled to England after the German invasion of Norway (1940), and his refusal to abdicate inspired Norwegians to resist the German occupation.
Haarlem City (pop., 2001 est.: 148,377), western Netherlands. It lies along the Spaarne River, west of Amsterdam. By the 12th century it had become a fortified town and the residence of the counts of Holland. It was chartered in 1245 and incorporated in the United Netherlands in 1577. Its prosperity peaked in the 17th century, when it was a refuge for Hugue¬ nots and also an artistic centre. It is an industrial city and the centre for a tulip-growing region. Sites of interest include the 13th-century town hall and the 14th-century Great Church.
Haas \'has\, Mary R(osamond) (b. Jan. 12, 1910, Richmond, Ind., U.S.—d. May 17, 1996, Alameda county, Calif.) U.S. linguist. She stud¬ ied with Edward Sapir at Yale University, where her dissertation was on Tunica, a moribund American Indian language. She continued her field¬ work on, and comparative studies of, American Indian languages, espe¬ cially of the southeastern U.S., including the Natchez and Muskogean languages, for the rest of her life. She directed the Survey of California Indian Languages while on the University of California, Berkeley, faculty (1945-77). Many of her students have done invaluable descriptive work on nearly extinct languages.
Habakkuk Mio-'bak-ok, 'hab-9-,kuk\ (fl. 6th or 7th century bc) One of the 12 Minor Prophets of the Hebrew scriptures, traditional author of the book of Habakkuk. (His prophecy is part of a larger book, The Twelve, in the Jewish canon.) He was perhaps a Temple musician as well as a prophet. He denounced the sins of Judah, identifying their enemies the Chaldeans (Babylonians) as an instrument of God’s punishment, but also predicted the final triumph of righteousness.
habeas corpus Vha-be-os-'kor-posV Latin "you should have the body" In common law, any of several writs issued to bring a party before a court. The most important such writ ( habeas corpus ad subjiciendum ) is used to correct violations of personal liberty by directing judicial inquiry into the legality of a detention. Common grounds for relief include a conviction based on illegally obtained evidence, a denial of effective assistance of counsel, or a conviction by a jury that was improperly selected or impaneled. The writ may be used in civil matters to challenge a person’s custody of a child or the institutionalization of a person declared incompetent.
Haber Vha-borX, Fritz (b. Dec. 9, 1868, Breslau, Silesia, Prussia—d. Jan. 29, 1934, Basel, Switz.) German physical chemist. After early research in electrochemistry and thermodynamics, he developed, with his brother-in-law Carl Bosch (1874-1940), the Haber-Bosch process for mak¬
ing ammonia. Intensely patriotic, he directed Germany’s World War I chemical-warfare efforts, under which poison gas was introduced. His versatility and his wide-ranging and important work brought him fame and honour, and he was awarded a 1918 Nobel Prize. In 1933 the Nazi Party’s anti-Semitic policies led him to resign as head (since 1911) of the Kaiser-Wilhelm Institute.
Haber-Bosch Vha-bor-'boshN process or Haber ammonia pro¬ cess or synthetic ammonia process First economically feasible method of directly synthesizing ammonia from hydrogen gas and atmo¬ spheric nitrogen. It was developed c. 1909 by Fritz Haber and Carl Bosch (1874-1940), prompted by rapidly increasing demand for nitrogen fertil¬ izer. It was the first industrial process to use high pressure (200-400 atmospheres) for a chemical reaction. A catalyst (usually iron) lets it take place at a moderate temperature (750-1,200 °F [400- 650 °C]), and immediate removal of ammonia as it is formed favours formation of more of it. Still the cheap¬ est means of industrial nitrogen fixation, it is a basic process of the chemical industry.
Habermas Vha-bor-.masV Jurgen (b. June 18, 1929) German philosopher associated with the Frank¬ furt school. He received his Ph.D. at the University of Bonn in 1954. He taught primarily at the Johann Wolf¬ gang Goethe University in Frankfurt, Ger.; he also directed the Max Planck Institute in Starnberg (1971— 80). In his Theory of Communicative Action (1985, 1987), he attempts to develop an account of truth that does not imply that truth is “absolute” or transcendent—i.e., valid for all people and all societies at all times. His “discourse” theory of truth is based on the observation that communication, unlike other forms of human action, is oriented toward “consent” rather than “success,” in that it aims to achieve mutual understanding rather to change or master some aspect of the world. The process of constructing such an under¬ standing, however, requires that each individual assume that the utterances of the other are for the most part “true,” and that the other can provide reasons to support the truth of his utterances should he be called upon to do so. The notion of truth is thus not a metaphysical fiction but a regu¬ lative ideal that makes communication possible.
Habima Vho-'be-moV or Habimah Hebrew "Stage" Hebrew theatre company. Organized in Poland in 1912, it was reestablished in 1917 in Moscow, where it was encouraged by Konstantin Stanislavsky. Habima’s production of The Dybbuk (1922) established it as a company of high artistic merit, and it became affiliated with the Moscow Art Theatre. After producing The Golem (1925), the group toured Europe and the U.S. In 1931 most of the group moved to Tel Aviv, where they presented Yiddish and biblical dramas and a repertory of Israeli, classical, and contempo¬ rary foreign plays. In 1958 it became the National Theatre of Israel.
habit In psychology, any regularly repeated behaviour that requires little or no thought and is learned rather than innate. Some habits (e.g., tying a shoelace) may conserve higher mental processes for more demanding tasks, but others promote behavioral inflexibility or are unhealthy. Five methods are commonly used to break unwanted habits: replacing the old response with a new one, repeating the behaviour until it becomes unpleasant, separating the individual from the stimulus that prompts the response, habituation, and punishment.
habitat Place where an organism or a community of organisms lives, including all living and nonliving factors or conditions of the surround¬ ing environment. A host organism inhabited by parasites is as much a habitat as a place on land such as a grove of trees or an aquatic locality such as a small pond. “Microhabitat” refers to the conditions and organ¬ isms in the immediate vicinity of a plant or animal.
habituation Reduction of an animal’s behavioral response to a stimu¬ lus, as a result of a lack of reinforcement during continual exposure to the stimulus. Habituation is usually considered a form of learning in which behaviours not needed are eliminated. It may be separated from most other forms of decreased response on the basis of permanence; the habituated animal either does not resume its earlier reaction to the stimulus after a period of no stimulus, or, if the normal reaction is resumed on reexpo¬ sure to the stimulus, it wanes more quickly than before. Vital responses (e.g., flight from a predator) cannot be truly habituated.