Geist

Encyclopedia : G : GE : GEI : Geist

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For other meanings of Geist, see Geist (disambiguation) page.

Geist is German for mind, spirit or ghost. It is a central concept in Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit. According to Hegel, the Weltgeist ("World Spirit") makes history through the mediation of various Volksgeist ("Folk Spirits"), of which great men, such as Napoleon, are the incarnation (or "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 likely much more complex. In Hegel's eyes, the great man is used by the Geist and set aside once his mission 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.

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.

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.

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.

See also

• Consciousness
• Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit
• Georg Lukacs' conception of class consciousness
• Psyche
• Volk-Geist

References

• 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

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