Geist
For other meanings of Geist
, see Geist (disambiguation) page.Geist is a
German word that does not translate very well into English. It is usually translated as
mind,
spirit or even
ghost but can also be associated with drive or motivation.
It is a central concept in
Hegel's
Phenomenology of Spirit. According to Hegel, the
Weltgeist ("World Spirit") is not an actual thing on might come upon or a God-like thing beyond, but a means of philosophising about history.
Weltgeist is effected in history through the
mediation of various
Volksgeist ("Folk Spirits"), the
great men of history, such as
Napoleon, are the "
concrete universal").
This has led some to claim that Hegel favoured the
great man theory, although his
philosophy of history, in particular concerning the role of the "
universal state" (
Universal Stand, which means as well "order" or "statute" than "state"), and of an "End of History" is much more complex.
For Hegel's, the great hero is unwittingly utilised by
Geist or
Absolute Spirit, by a "rouse of Reason" as Hegel puts it, and is irrelevant to history once his historic mission is accomplished; he is thus submitted to the
teleological principle of history, a principle which allows Hegel to re-read all the
history of philosophy as culminating in his philosophy of history.
Weltgeist, the
world spirit concept designates an
idealistic principle of world explanation, which can be found from the beginnings of philosophy up to more recent time. The concept of world spirit was already accepted by the idealistic schools of ancient Indian philosophy, whereby one explained
objective reality as its product. (See
metaphysical objectivism) In the early philosophy of Greek antiquity,
Socrates,
Plato and
Aristotle all paid homage, amongst other things, to the
concept of world spirit. Hegel later based his
philosophy of history on it.
Geist is a component of several German
loanwords such as
Zeitgeist, the spirit of the time or
collective unconscious, and
poltergeist, the mischievous ghosts that are believed to make noises.
Early Germanic tribes, like other pagan tribes around the world, had customs of consulting dead ancestors at feasts. The English words "ghost" and "guest" are said to have descended from the German
Geist due to the Northern pagan custom in which the ancestral spirits were invited as honored guests.
In German (Roman Catholic)
theology, the term
Heiliger Gest refers to the
Holy Spirit.
Geisteskrank is a German word literally meaning "of an ill mind" and is sometimes used to describe someone suffering from
mental illness.
Geistlos refers to being mindless or without spirit.
*
Consciousness*
Hegel's
Phenomenology of Spirit*
Georg Lukacs' conception of
class consciousness*
PsycheVolk-Geist*
Of Spirit: Heidegger and the Question, by
Jacques Derrida. Translation by Geoffrey Bennington & Rachel Bowlby, Chicago University Press, 1989 (ISBN 0226143171) and 1991 (ISBN 0226143198)
*
Faith and Folklore of the British Isles, by William Carew Hazlitt, Kessinger Publishing. ISBN 0766148084
