Zeitgeist
This article is about the German word. For other articles using that word see Zeitgeist (disambiguation).Zeitgeist () is originally a
German expression that means "the
spirit (Geist) of the
time (Zeit)". It denotes the intellectual and cultural climate of an era. The German pronunciation of the word is (
IPA).
The concept of
Zeitgeist goes back to
Johann Gottfried Herder and other German Romantics, 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 (
German Wikipedia article) 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 mere conceptual instrument.
Zeitgeist has achieved a unique status among German
loanwords in other tongues, having found an entrance into
English,
Spanish,
Dutch and even
Japanese.
It is a term that refers to the
ethos of a
cohort of people, that spans one or more subsequent
generations, who despite their diverse age and
socio-economic background experience a certain
worldview, 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. According to Hegel, the Zeitgeist always incarnated itself in a specific
Volksgeist ("Volk" meaning "people"), which itself was personalized by an individual
hero, symbolized by
Napoleon. Once the hero's mission was accomplished, history would abandon it as a dry shell, and the Zeitgeist would be transferred to another
Volksgeist, where another hero would emerge to complete the unfolding of the spiritual
Being in history itself.
Whoever marries the zeitgeist will be a widower soon. -
August Everding (
German Wikipedia article)
Opinions, that deviate from the ruling zeitgeist, always aggravate the crowd. -
Germaine de StaelThe product of paper and printed ink, that we commonly call the book, is one of the great visible mediators between spirit and time, and, reflecting zeitgeist, lasts as long as ore and stone. -
Johann Georg HamannDon't take any shit from the zeitgeist. - comedian
George Carlin* One of the first songs by
Manic Street Preachers bassist and main lyricist
Nicky Wire, which was available to the fans on the band's website, is called "I Killed The Zeitgeist".
* Is the password for Gunther Hermann's E-mail account in the computer game
Deus Ex.
* Is the name of an album by
The Levellers* Is one of
San Francisco's most popular counter cultural bars and gathering places.
* Zeitgeist was a famous playboy superhero with the power to project an acid as a weapon from his mouth in the
Marvel comics X-Force and
X-Statix.
* The website 43things.com has a section called zeitgeist.
* The
O.C's
Seth Cohen has made reference to a 'cultural zeitgeist' when describing how his 'super holiday' "
Chrismukkah" will sweep the nation.
* In
Sex and the City,
Carrie's boyfriend Vaughn has a father who teaches a class on Cultural Zeitgeist at
Columbia University and invites Carrie to speak at his class, as he views her as a
cultural icon.
* The
Google Current segments on
Al Gore's
Current TV end with the statement, "Zeitgeist Data Provided by Google".
* The online magazine Slate.com has a weekly column called "The Zeitgeist Checklist".
*
Collective consciousness*
List of English words of German origin*
Generation X*
Christian Adolph Klotz*
Christian Adolf Klotz in: Meyers Konversations-Lexikon, 4. Aufl., 1888, Vol. 9, Page 859
*
Genius seculi blog ( German php blog )
*
Google Zeitgeist*
Zeitgeist Web Comic
