Geist

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This article is about the German word. For the Nintendo GameCube title, see Geist (video game). For the area in Indianapolis, Indiana, see Geist, Indianapolis.
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Geist (German IPA: [gaɪ̯st]) is a German word that does not translate very well into English. It is usually translated as mind, spirit, or ghost but can also be associated with drive or motivation. Some English translators resort to using "spirit-mind" to help convey the meaning of the term. Closer approximations include the Greek word πνεύμα(pneuma), the Latin animus and anima, and the Chinese medical 神 shen (all quite similar in meaning).

It is a central concept in Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit (Phänomenologie des Geistes). According to Hegel, the Weltgeist ("World Spirit") is not an actual thing one might come upon or a God-like thing beyond, but a means of philosophising about history.[citation needed] 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.

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[edit] The Weltgeist

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.

[edit] Others

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.

In German (Roman Catholic) theology, the term Heiliger Geist 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. In professional psycho-scientific language, however, the term is obsolete nowadays.

Geistlos refers to being mindless or without spirit.

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[edit] Links

  • Hegel.net -- an overview in English of Hegel's various uses of the term "Geist"
Philosophy Portal