Geist

This article is about the German word. For other uses, seeGeist (disambiguation).

Geist(German pronunciation:[ˈɡaɪst]) is aGermannoun with a significant degree of importance inGerman philosophy.Geist can be roughly translated into three English meanings:ghost(as in the supernatural entity),spirit(as in the Holy Spirit), andmindorintellect.Some English translators resort to using "spirit/mind" or "spirit (mind)" to help convey the meaning of the term.

Geistis also a central concept inGeorg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel's 1807The Phenomenology of Spirit(Phänomenologie des Geistes). Notable compounds, all associated with Hegel's view ofworld historyof the late 18th century, includeWeltgeist(German:[ˈvɛltˌɡaɪ̯st],"world-spirit" ),Volksgeist"national spirit" andZeitgeist"spirit of the age".

Etymology and translation

Further information:Spirit (animating force),Pneuma,Psyche (psychology),andSoul

GermanGeist(masculine gender:der Geist) continuesOld High Germangeist,attested as the translation of Latinspiritus. It is the direct cognate of Englishghost,from aWest Germanicgaistaz.Its derivation from aPIE rootg̑heis-"to be agitated, frightened" suggests that the Germanic word originally referred to frightening (c.f. Englishghastly) apparitions orghosts,and may also have carried the connotation of "ecstatic agitation,furor"related to the cult ofGermanic Mercury. As the translation of biblical Latinspiritus(Greek πνεῦμα) "spirit, breath"the Germanic word acquires a Christian meaning from an early time, notably in reference to theHoly Spirit(Old Englishsē hālga gāst"the Holy Ghost", OHGther heilago geist,Modern Germander Heilige Geist). Poltergeist (Noisy/Disruptive Geist) is a common interchangeable term. The English word is in competition with Latinatespiritfrom the Middle English period, but its broader meaning is preserved well into the early modern period.

The German noun much like Englishspiritcould refer to spooks or ghostly apparitions of the dead, to the religious concept, as in the Holy Spirit, as well as to the "spirit of wine", i.e.,ethanol. However, its special meaning of "mind,intellect"never shared by Englishghostis acquired only in the 18th century, under the influence of Frenchesprit. In this sense it became extremely productive in the German language of the 18th century in general as well as in 18th-century German philosophy. Geistcould now refer to the quality of intellectual brilliance, to wit, innovation, erudition, etc. It is also in this time that the adjectival distinction ofgeistlich"spiritual, pertaining to religion" vs.geistig"intellectual, pertaining to the mind" begins to be made. Reference to spooks or ghosts is made by the adjectivegeisterhaft"ghostly, spectral".

Numerouscompoundsare formed in the 18th to 19th centuries, some of them loan translations of French expressions, such asGeistesgegenwart=présence d'esprit( "mental presence, acuity" ),Geistesabwesenheit=absence d’esprit( "mental absence, distraction" ),geisteskrank"mentally ill",geistreich"witty, intellectually brilliant",geistlos"unintelligent, unimaginative, vacuous" etc. It is from these developments that certain German compounds containing-geisthave been loaned into English, such asZeitgeist.

GermanGeistin this particular sense of "mind, wit, erudition; intangible essence, spirit" has no precise English-language equivalent, for which reason translators sometimes retainGeistas a German loanword.

There is a second word forghostin German:das Gespenst(neutral gender).Der Geistis used slightly more often to refer to a ghost (in the sense of flying white creature) thandas Gespenst.The corresponding adjectives aregespenstisch( "ghostly", "spooky" ) andgespensterhaft( "ghost-like" ). AGespenstis described in German asspukender Totengeist,a "spooking ghost of the dead". The adjectivesgeistigandgeistlichon the other hand, can not be used to describe something spooky, asgeistigmeans "mental", andgeistlichmeans either "spiritual" or refers to employees of the church.Geisterhaftwould also mean, likegespensterhaft,"ghost-like". While "spook" meansder Spuk(male gender), the adjective of this word is only used in its English form,spooky.The more common German adjective would begruselig,deriving fromder Grusel(das ist gruselig,colloquially:das ist spooky,meaning "that is spooky" ).

Hegelianism

Geistis a central concept inHegel's philosophy. According to most interpretations, theWeltgeist( "world spirit" ) is not an actual object or a transcendent, godlike thing, but a means of philosophizing about history.Weltgeistis effected in history through themediationof variousVolksgeister( "national spirits" ), thegreat menof history, such asNapoleon,are the "concreteuniversal".

This has led some to claim that Hegel favored thegreat man theory,although hisphilosophy of history,in particular concerning the role of the "universalstate "(Universalstaat,which means a universal "order" or "statute" rather than "state"), and of an" End of History "is much more complex.

For Hegel, the great hero is unwittingly utilized byGeistorabsolute spirit,by a "ruse of reason" as he puts it, and is irrelevant to history once his historic mission is accomplished; he is thus subjected to theteleologicalprinciple of history, a principle which allows Hegel to reread the history of philosophy as culminating in his philosophy of history.

Weltgeist

Further information:Anima Mundi

Weltgeist( "world-spirit" ) is older than the 18th century, at first (16th century) in the sense of "secularism, impiety, irreligiosity" (spiritus mundi), in the 17th century also personalised in the sense of "man of the world", "mundane or secular person". Also from the 17th century,Weltgeistacquired a philosophical or spiritual sense of "world-spirit" or "world-soul" (anima mundi, spiritus universi) in the sense ofPanentheism,a spiritual essence permeating all of nature, or the active principle animating the universe, including the physical sense, such as the attraction betweenmagnet and ironor betweenMoon and tide.

This idea ofWeltgeistin the sense ofanima mundibecame very influential in 18th-century German philosophy. In philosophical contexts,der Geiston its own could refer to this concept, as inChristian Thomasius,Versuch vom Wesen des Geistes(1709). Belief in aWeltgeistas animating principle immanent to the universe became dominant in German thought due to the influence ofGoethe,in the later part of the 18th century.

Already in the poetical language ofJohann Ulrich von König(d. 1745), theWeltgeist appears as the active, masculine principle opposite the feminine principle ofNature. Weltgeistin the sense of Goethe comes close to being a synonym ofGodand can be attributed agency and will. Herder,who tended to prefer the formWeltengeist(as it were "spirit of worlds" ), pushes this to the point of composing prayers addressed to this world-spirit:

O Weltengeist, Bist du so gütig, wie du mächtig bist, Enthülle mir, den du mitfühlend zwar, Und doch so grausam schufst, erkläre mir Das Loos der Fühlenden, die durch mich leiden.

"O World-spirit, be as benevolent as you are powerful and reveal to me, whom you have created with compassion and yet cruelly, explain to me the lot of the sentient, who suffer through me"

"Hegel and Napoleon in Jena" (illustration fromHarper's Magazine,1895)

The term was notably embraced byHegeland his followers in the early 19th century. For the 19th century, the term as used byHegel (1807)became prevalent, less in the sense of an animating principle of nature or the universe but as the invisible force advancingworld history:

"In the course of history one relevant factor is the preservation of anation[...] while the other factor is that the continued existence of a national spirit [Volksgeist] is interrupted because it has exhausted and spent itself, so that world history, the world spirit [Weltgeist], proceeds. "

Hegel's description ofNapoleonas "the world-soul on horseback" (die Weltseele zu Pferde) became proverbial. The phrase is a shortened paraphrase of Hegel's words in a letter written on 13 October 1806, the day before theBattle of Jena,to his friendFriedrich Immanuel Niethammer:

I saw the Emperor – this world-soul – riding out of the city on reconnaissance. It is indeed a wonderful sensation to see such an individual, who, concentrated here at a single point, astride a horse, reaches out over the world and masters it.

The letter was not published in Hegel's time, but the expression was attributed to Hegel anecdotally, appearing in print from 1859. It is used without attribution byMeyer Kayserlingin hisSephardim(1859:103), and is apparently not recognized as a reference to Hegel by the reviewer inGöttingische gelehrte Anzeigen,who notes it disapprovingly, as one of Kayserling's "bad jokes" (schlechte Witze). The phrase became widely associated with Hegel later in the 19th century.

Volksgeist

"National spirit" redirects here. For the racehorse, seeNational Spirit (horse).For the horse race, seeNational Spirit Hurdle.

Further information:National character,National consciousness,andEthnic essentialism

VolksgeistorNationalgeistrefers to a "spirit" of an individualpeople (Volk),its "national spirit" or "national character".The termNationalgeistis used in the 1760s byJustus Möserand byJohann Gottfried Herder.The termNationat this time is used in the sense ofnatio"nation, ethnic group, race", mostly replaced by the termVolkafter 1800. In the early 19th century, the termVolksgeistwas used byFriedrich Carl von Savignyin order to express the "popular" sense ofjustice. Savigniy explicitly referred to the concept of anesprit des nationsused byVoltaire.and of theesprit généralinvoked byMontesquieu.

Hegel uses the term in hisLectures on the Philosophy of History. Based on the Hegelian use of the term,Wilhelm Wundt,Moritz LazarusandHeymann Steinthalin the mid-19th-century established the field ofVölkerpsychologie( "psychology of nations" ).

In Germany the concept of Volksgeist has developed and changed its meaning through eras and fields. The most important examples are: In the literary field,Schlegeland theBrothers Grimm;in the history of cultures,Herder;in the history of the State or political history,Hegel;in the field of law,Savigny;and in the field of psychologyWundt.This means that the concept is ambiguous. Furthermore it is not limited toRomanticismas it is commonly known.

The concept of was also influential in American cultural anthropology. According to the historian of anthropologyGeorge W. Stocking, Jr.,"…one may trace the later American anthropological idea of culture back through Bastian's Volkergedanken and the folk psychologist's Volksgeister to Wilhelm von Humboldt's Nationalcharakter – and behind that, although not without a paradoxical and portentous residue of conceptual and ideological ambiguity, to the Herderian ideal of Volksgeist."

Zeitgeist

Main article:Zeitgeist

See also:Multiple discoveryandEpochalism

The compoundZeitgeist(/ˈzaɪtɡaɪst/;,"spirit of the age" or "spirit of the times" ) similarly toWeltgeistdescribes an invisible agent or force dominating the characteristics of a given epoch inworld history. The term is now mostly associated withHegel,contrasting with Hegel's use ofVolksgeist"national spirit" andWeltgeist"world-spirit", but its coinage and popularization precedes Hegel, and is mostly due toHerderandGoethe.

The term as used contemporarily may more pragmatically refer to afashion or fadwhich prescribes what is acceptable or tasteful, e.g. in the field ofarchitecture.

Hegel inPhenomenology of the Spirit(1807) uses bothWeltgeistandVolksgeistbut prefers the phraseGeist der Zeiten"spirit of the times" over thecompoundZeitgeist.

Hegel believed that culture and art reflected its time. Thus, he arguedthat it would be impossible to produce classical art in the modern world, as modernity is essentially a "free and ethical culture".

The term has also been used more widely in the sense of an intellectual or aestheticfashionorfad. For example,Charles Darwin's 1859 proposition thatevolutionoccurs bynatural selectionhas been cited as a case of thezeitgeistof the epoch, an idea "whose time had come", seeing that his contemporary,Alfred Russel Wallace,was outlining similar models during the same period. Similarly, intellectual fashions such as the emergence oflogical positivismin the 1920s, leading to a focus onbehaviorismandblank-slatismover the following decades, and later, during the 1950s to 1960s, the shift from behaviorism topost-modernismandcritical theorycan be argued to be an expression of the intellectual or academic "zeitgeist". Zeitgeistin more recent usage has been used by Forsyth (2009) in reference to his "theory ofleadership"and in other publications describing models of business or industry. Malcolm Gladwellargued in his bookOutliersthat entrepreneurs who succeeded in the early stages of a nascent industry often share similar characteristics.

See also

• Max Stirner– German philosopher (1806–1856)
• Hauntology

References

• Of Spirit: Heidegger and the Question,byJacques Derrida.Translation by Geoffrey Bennington & Rachel Bowlby, Chicago University Press, 1989 (ISBN0-226-14317-1) and 1991 (ISBN0-226-14319-8)
• Berlin, Isaiah:Vico and Herder. Two Studies in the History of Ideas,London, 1976.
• Stocking, George W.1996. 'Volksgeist as Method and Ethic: Essays on Boasian Ethnography and the German Anthropological Tradition.ISBN0-299-14554-9

External links

• Hegel's Spirit/Mindfrom Hegel.net (Hegel's various uses of the termGeistbased on the entry fromEncyclopædia Britannica 11th Edition)
• Christian Adolph Klotz
• Christian Adolf Klotzin: Meyers Konversations-Lexikon, 4. Aufl., 1888, Vol. 9, Page 859
• Dirk Goettsche."Zeitgeist".Words of the World.Brady Haran(University of Nottingham). Archived fromthe originalon 2019-08-06.Retrieved2018-03-20.