Editing Zeitgeist (section)

{{Short description|Philosophical concept meaning "spirit of the age"}}
{{Other uses}}
{{undue weight|date=March 2018}}
In 18th- and 19th-century [[German philosophy]], a '''''Zeitgeist'''''<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/zeitgeist|title=zeitgeist noun - Definition, pictures, pronunciation and usage notes - Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary at OxfordLearnersDictionaries.com |publisher=www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com |access-date=2019-12-17}}</ref> ({{IPA|de|ˈtsaɪtɡaɪst|-|De-Zeitgeist.ogg}}; {{lit|spirit of the age}}; capitalized in German) is an invisible agent, force, or [[Daimon|daemon]] dominating the characteristics of a given [[epoch]] in [[World history (field)|world history]].<ref>Theo Jung: [https://freidok.uni-freiburg.de/data/9343 "''Zeitgeist im langen 18. Jahrhundert. Dimension Begriffs''"], in: Achim Landwehr (ed.): ''Frühe Neue Zeiten. Zeitwissen zwischen Reformation und Revolution'', Bielefeld 2012, 319-355; idem: [https://freidok.uni-freiburg.de/data/10824 "The Politics of Time: Zeitgeist in Early Nineteenth-Century Political Discourse"], in: Contributions to the History of Concepts 9, Nr. 1 (2014), 24-49.</ref> The term is usually associated with [[Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel|Georg W. F. Hegel]], contrasting with Hegel's use of ''[[Volksgeist]]'' "national spirit" and ''[[Weltgeist]]'' "world-spirit". 

Its coinage and popularization precede Hegel, and are mostly due to [[Johann Gottfried Herder|Herder]] and [[Goethe]].<ref>''Zeitgeist'' "spirit of the epoch" and ''Nationalgeist'' "spirit of a nation" in L. Meister, ''Eine kurze Geschichte der Menschenrechte'' (1789).
''der frivole Welt- und Zeitgeist'' ("the frivolous spirit of the world and the time") in [[Lavater]], ''Handbibliothek für Freunde'' 5 (1791), p. 57.
''Zeitgeist'' is popularized by [[Johann Gottfried Herder|Herder]] and [[Goethe]].
[http://woerterbuchnetz.de/cgi-bin/WBNetz/wbgui_py?sigle=DWB&mode=Vernetzung&hitlist=&patternlist=&lemid=GZ03558#XGZ03567 Zeitgeist] in Grimm, ''Deutsches Wörterbuch''.</ref> Other philosophers who were associated with such concepts include [[Herbert Spencer|Spencer]]{{year needed|date=March 2018}} and [[Voltaire]].{{year needed|date=March 2018}}<ref name="StF" /><!--are we claiming Voltaire used the German word, or is this implicitly translating ''esprit du temps''? reference? year?-->

Contemporary use of the term sometimes, more colloquially, is similar to the [[Overton Window]] in referring to a schema of fashions or [[fad| fads]] that prescribe what is considered to be acceptable or tasteful for an era: e.g., in fields like [[architecture]], [[psychotherapy]], or [[journalism]].<ref name="StF">{{citation |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yvqZt9ZnmYUC |author=Eero Saarinen |title=Shaping the Future |publisher=[[Yale University Press]] |year=2006 |isbn=978-0-972-48812-9 |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=yvqZt9ZnmYUC&pg=PA15 15]}}</ref>