|
 Zeitgeist is a German
language expression literally translated:
Zeit,
time; Geist, spirit, meaning
"the spirit of the
age and its society".
The word zeitgeist
describes the intellectual, cultural, ethical
and political climate, ambience and morals of an
era or also a trend. In
German, the word has
more layers of meaning than the English
translation, including the fact that Zeitgeist
can only be observed for past events.
Origins: The concept of Zeitgeist goes back to Johann
Gottfried Herder and other German Romantics such
as Cornelius Jagdmann, but is best known in
relation to Hegel's philosophy of history. In
1769 Herder wrote a critique of the work Genius
seculi by the philologist Christian Adolph Klotz
and introduced the word Zeitgeist into German as
a translation of genius seculi (Latin: genius -
"guardian spirit" and saeculi - "of the
century").
The German Romantics, habitually tempted to
reduce the past to essences, treated the
Zeitgeist as a historical character in its own
right, rather than a generalized description for
an era.
Definitions
"Zeitgeist" refers to the ethos of an identified
group of people, that expresses a particular
world view which is prevalent at a particular
period of socio-cultural progression.
Zeitgeist is the experience of a dominant
cultural climate that defines, particularly in
Hegelian thinking, an era in the dialectical
progression of a people or the world at large.
Hegel's main contribution to the formulation of
the concept of Volksgeist is the attribution of
a historical character to the concept. The
spirit of a nation is one of the manifestations
of "World Spirit" (Weltgeist). That Spirit is
essentially alive and active throughout
mankind's history. Now, the spirit of a nation
is an intermediate stage of world history as the
history of the World Spirit. The World Spirit
gives impetus to the realization of the
historical spirits of various nations (Volksgeister').
The spirits of individual nations are both the
articulations (Gliederungen) of an organization
and its realization. The spirits of individual
nations represent a segment of the World Spirit
out of which emerges the unlimited universal
spirit. A comparison is introduced here between
the status of an individual and that of a
nation's spirit. In the process of his formation
the individual undergoes various changes
without, however, losing his identity. As a part
of world history, a nation—exhibiting a certain
trend expressed in its Volksgeist— plays its
part in the total process of world history. But
once it contributes its share to world history
it can no longer play a role in the process of
world history. The submersion in the total
process prevents a people's cultural rebirth,
because it has exhausted its creativity in the
historical growth of its guiding spirit.
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