Geist

Scholarlyphilosophyculturesociology

Etymology

German "Geist" means spirit, mind, or ghost, and is cognate with English "ghost." Hegel made Geist the self-unfolding world-spirit working itself out through history. It is the "-geist" in "Zeitgeist," spirit of the age, and "Poltergeist," noisy ghost.

  1. noun · /GYSTE/

    Spirit or mind, especially the collective spirit animating an age or a people.

    What it names

    Mind considered as something larger than any single head — a shared spirit that moves through history.

    Example

    Historians speak of a national Geist, a shared temperament, while warning how easily the idea slides into myth.

    Related idea

    The spirit-root shared by zeitgeist and poltergeist; Geist is mind imagined as a force beyond the individual.

See also

AnimaPsycheWeltanschauungZeitgeist