School
Zeitgeist
Overview
In 18th- and 19th-century German philosophy, a Zeitgeist (German pronunciation: [ˈtsaɪtɡaɪst] ; lit. 'spirit of the age'; capitalized in German) is a way of referring to the intellectual, cultural, ethical and political climate of a given epoch in world history. It is often described as an invisible agent, force, or daemon that seems to dominate the characteristics of a particular period. The term is usually associated with Georg W. F. Hegel, contrasting with Hegel's use of Volksgeist ("national spirit") and Weltgeist ("world-spirit"), although the word itself predates Hegel and was popularized by Johann Gottfried Herder and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
The expression belongs to a wider family of notions such as "spirit of the age", "spirit of the times" or genius saeculi ("spirit of the century"), which had circulated in Latin and the major European languages since the early modern period to express the idea that people's thoughts and actions are shaped by the social environment of their time rather than only by timeless truths or individual genius. In 1769 Herder translated the Latin phrase genius seculi used by the philologist Christian Adolph Klotz as Zeitgeist in his aesthetic essay Kritische Wälder, and the term was taken up in later discussions of philosophy of history and history of ideas. Other philosophers who were associated with related ideas include Herbert Spencer and Voltaire.
Contemporary use of the term sometimes, more colloquially, is similar to the Overton window in referring to a pattern of fashions or fads that prescribe what is considered to be acceptable or tasteful for an era: for example, in fields such as architecture, psychotherapy, journalism or popular culture. The term is widely used, often without translation, in many languages to denote the "spirit" or dominant climate of a particular period.
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
Possible passages
Found by search and not yet checked by a person; they may only mention the idea in passing.
To combat the shallowness, to strive with German earnestness and honesty, to draw Philosophy out of the solitude into which it has wandered—to do such work as this we may hope that we are called by the higher spirit of our time. Let us together greet the dawn of a better time in which the spirit, hitherto a prey to externalities, may return within itself, come to itself again, and win space and room for a kingdom of…
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Hegel's Lectures on the History of Philosophy
States what Zeitgeist is; the author is tied to Zeitgeist in the knowledge graph.
In Germany, not more than a century ago, a natural instinct for what is called "poetry" was awakened in some young men. Are we to think that the generations who had lived before that time had not spoken of the art, however really strange and unnatural it may have been to them?
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, Thoughts Out of Season, Part II
States what Zeitgeist is.
Thus, alike in its oracular dogmatism, in its harsh discipline, in its multiplied restrictions, in its professed asceticism, and in its faith in the devices of men, the old educational regime was akin to the social systems with which it was contemporaneous; and similarly, in the reverse of these characteristics, our modern modes of culture correspond to our more liberal religious and political institutions.
Herbert Spencer, Essays on education and kindred subjects
The author is tied to Zeitgeist in the knowledge graph.
Philosophers who discussed Zeitgeist
Related ideas
- Yale University Press
- Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
- Anima mundi
- Thomas Carlyle
- Journalism
- German philosophy
- Latin
- Philosophy of history
- Leo Tolstoy
- Sociology
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
- Max Weber
- Architecture
- Psychology
- Herbert Spencer
- Psychotherapy
- Social psychology
- Johann Gottfried Herder
- Voltaire
- World history (field)
- Émile Durkheim
- Cultural history
- Social capital
- Intellectual history
Place in the tradition
Part of Lebensphilosophie.