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{{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> (capitalized in German; {{IPA-de|ˈtsaɪtɡaɪst|-|De-Zeitgeist.ogg}})  ("spirit of the age") is an invisible agent, force, or [[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. Dimensionen eines umstrittenen 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, refers to a schema of [[fad|fashions or fads]] that prescribes what is considered to be acceptable or tasteful for an era: e.g., in the field of [[architecture]].<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>

==Theory of leadership==
{{Further|Phenomenology of the Spirit|Weltgeist|Volksgeist|Hegelianism}}
Hegel in ''[[Phenomenology of the Spirit]]'' (1807) uses both ''Weltgeist'' and ''Volksgeist'', but prefers the phrase ''Geist der Zeiten'' "spirit of the times" over the [[German compound|compound]] ''Zeitgeist''.<ref>
c.f. use of the phrase {{lang|de|der Geist seiner Zeit}} ("the spirit of his time") in ''[[Lectures on the Philosophy of History]]'', for example, "no man can surpass his own time, for the spirit of his time is also his own spirit." {{citation |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=khvwPJMzNzMC |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=khvwPJMzNzMC&q=Zeitgeist&pg=PA262 |title=The Hegel Dictionary |author=Glenn Alexander Magee |publisher=[[A & C Black]] |location=London |year=2010 |isbn=978-1-847-06591-9 <!--|ISBN=1-84706591-0 -->|chapter=Zeitgeist (p. 262)}}</ref>

The Hegelian concept is in contrast to the [[Great Man theory]] propounded by [[Thomas Carlyle]], which sees history as the result of the actions of heroes and geniuses. Contradistinct Hegel perceived such "great men", specifically [[Napoleon]], as the "embodiment of the world-spirit" (''Die Weltseele zu Pferde'' "the [[Anima mundi|world-soul]] on horseback"<ref>Hegel, letter of 13 October 1806  to F. I. Niethammer, no. 74 (p. 119) in ''Briefe von und an Hegel'' ed. Hoffmeister, vol. 1 (1970). 
See also H. Schnädelbach in Wolfgang Welsch, Klaus Vieweg (eds.), ''Das Interesse des Denkens: Hegel aus heutiger Sicht'', 
Wilhelm Fink Verlag (2003), [https://books.google.com/books?id=NrkPdUO5VRsC&pg=PA233  p. 223], 
T. Pinkard, '' Hegel: A Biography'', (2000), p. 228.</ref>).<ref name="Forsyth, D. R. 2009">Forsyth, D. R. (2009). Group dynamics: New York: Wadsworth. [Chapter 9]</ref> Carlyle stresses that leaders do not become leaders by fate or accident. Instead, these individuals possess characteristics of great leaders and these characteristics allow them to obtain positions of power.

According to Hegel biographer D. R.  Forsyth, [[Leo Tolstoy]] disagreed with Carlyle's perspective, instead believing that leadership, like other things, was a product of the "zeitgeist",{{year needed|date=March 2018}}{{page needed|date=March 2018}}<!--are we claiming Tolstoy used the term (when? where?) or are we just saying that Forsyth idly mentions Tolstoy and Zeitgeist alongside one another?--> the social circumstances at the time.<ref name="Forsyth, D. R. 2009"/>

Great Man theory and zeitgeist theory may be included in two main areas of thought in [[psychology]].<ref name="Forsyth, D. R. 2009"/> For instance, Great Man theory is very similar to the [[Trait theory|trait approach]]. Trait researchers are interested in identifying the various personality traits that underline human behaviors such as conformity, leadership, or other social behaviors. Thus, they agree that leadership is primarily a quality of an individual and that some people are pre-dispositioned to be a leader whereas others are born to follow these leaders. In contrast, [[Situationism (psychology)|situationist]] researchers believe that social behavior is a product of society. That is, social influence is what determines human behaviors. Therefore, situationism is of the same opinion as zeitgeist theory—leaders are created from the social environment and are molded from the situation. The concept of zeitgeist also relates to the sociological tradition that stems from [[Émile Durkheim]] and recently developed into [[social capital]] theory as exemplified by the work of [[Patrick Hunout]].

These two perspectives have been combined to create what is known as the ''interactional'' approach to leadership.<ref name="Forsyth, D. R. 2009"/> This approach asserts that leadership is developed through the mixing of personality traits and the situation. Further, this approach was expressed by social psychologist [[Kurt Lewin]] by the equation B = f(P, E) where behavior (B) is a function (f) of the person (P) and the environment (E).

===In self-help and business models===
Executives, venture capitalists, journalists, and authors have argued that the idea of a zeitgeist is useful in understanding the emergence of industries, simultaneous invention, and evaluating the relative value of innovations. [[Malcolm Gladwell]] argued in his book, ''[[Outliers (book)|Outliers]]'', that entrepreneurs who succeeded often share similar characteristics—early personal or significant exposure to knowledge and skills in the early stages of a nascent industry. He proposed that the timing of involvement in an industry, and often in sports as well, affected the probability of success. In [[Silicon Valley]], a number of people ([[Peter Thiel]], Alistair Davidson, Mac Levchin, [[Nicholas G. Carr]], [[Vinod Khosla]]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.technologyreview.com/view/428526/silicon-valleys-trouble-with-innovation/|title=Silicon Valley's Trouble with Innovation|work=MIT Technology Review}}</ref>) have argued that much innovation has been shaped by easy access to the Internet, [[open source software]], component technologies for both hardware and software (e.g., software libraries, [[software as a service]]), and the ability to reach narrow markets across a global market. Peter Thiel has commented: "There is so much [[incrementalism]] now."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://topics.bloomberg.com/peter-thiel/ |title=Peter Thiel|work=Bloomberg}}{{full citation needed|date=October 2023}}</ref>

In a zeitgeist market, the number of new entrants is high, differentiation in high-value products (the strongest predictor of new product success) is more difficult to achieve, and [[business model]]s emphasizing service and solution over product and process, will enhance success. Examples include innovation in product experience, legal rights and bundling, privacy rights, and agency (where businesses act on behalf of customers).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.technologyreview.com/qa/428186/max-levchin/ |title=Max Levchin|work=MIT Technology Review|first = Conor|archive-date = 20 January 2013|date = 19 June 2012|last = Myhrvold|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130120044747/http://www.technologyreview.com/qa/428186/max-levchin/ }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702304141204577508820786062502 |title=Why Modern Innovation Traffics in Trifles - WSJ|author=Nicholas Carr|date=6 July 2012|work=WSJ}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/07/13/khosla-the-silicon-valley-vision/|title= Vinod Khosla: Maintain the Silicon Valley Vision|author= Vinod Khosla	|work= The New York Times|date= 13 July 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.eclicktick.com/innovationzeitgeist/|title=The Book - Innovation Zeitgeist|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150923232954/http://www.eclicktick.com/innovationzeitgeist/|archive-date = 23 September 2015|work= eclicktick.com}}</ref>

== Aesthetic fashion ==
{{See also|Multiple discovery}} Hegel believed that art reflected, by its very nature, the culture of the time in which it is created. Culture and art are inextricable because an individual artist is a product of his or her time, so brings that culture to any given work of art. Furthermore, he believed that in the modern world, producing classical art, which he believed represented a "free and ethical culture", is impossible and depended more on the [[Aesthetics|philosophy of art]] and [[Art#Theory|theory of art]], rather than a reflection of the social construct, or zeitgeist in which a given artist lives.<ref>Hendrix, John Shannon. ''Aesthetics & The Philosophy Of Spirit''. New York: Peter Lang. (2005). 4, 11.</ref>

This use of ''zeitgeist'' is taken  in the sense of intellectual or aesthetic [[fashion]] or [[fad]]. Research from [[Experimental aesthetics|empirical aesthetics]] investigated the relation between zeitgeist as temporal context and the evaluation of [[Creativity|creative]] works. In a study of the musical originality of 15,618 classical [[Theme (music)|music themes]], the importance of objective characteristics and zeitgeist for popularity was examined. Both the musical originality of a theme relative to its contemporary works (the zeitgeist), as well as its "absolute" originality influenced in similar [[Effect size|magnitude]] the popularity of a theme.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Simonton|first=Dean K.|date=1980|title=Thematic fame, melodic originality, and musical zeitgeist: A biographical and transhistorical content analysis.|journal=Journal of Personality and Social Psychology|language=en|volume=38|issue=6|pages=972–983|doi=10.1037/0022-3514.38.6.972|issn=0022-3514}}</ref> Similarly, objective features and temporal context both influenced the evaluation of linguistic originality.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Form|first=Sven|date=2018-01-30|title=Reaching Wuthering Heights with Brave New Words: The Influence of Originality of Words on the Success of Outstanding Best-Sellers|journal=The Journal of Creative Behavior|volume=53|issue=4|pages=508–518|language=en|doi=10.1002/jocb.230|issn=0022-0175}}</ref>

==See also==
* {{annotated link|Geist|''Geist''}} 
* {{annotated link|Geisteswissenschaft|''Geisteswissenschaft''}}
* {{annotated link|Invisible hand}}
* {{annotated link|Multiple discovery}}
* {{annotated link|Era}}
* {{annotated link|Paradigm}}
* {{annotated link|Sociocultural system}}
* {{annotated link|World history (field)}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
<!-- DO NOT SHILL FOR THAT ZEITGEIST MOVIE HERE -->
{{wiktionary|zeitgeist|spiritus mundi}}
*[http://www.historikertag2002.uni-halle.de/druck/halle_geschichte/klotz.shtml Christian Adolph Klotz]
*[http://susi.e-technik.uni-ulm.de:8080/Meyers2/seite/werk/meyers/band/9/seite/0859/meyers_b9_s0859.html#Klotz Christian Adolf Klotz] in: Meyers Konversations-Lexikon, 4. Aufl., 1888, Vol. 9, Page 859
*{{cite web|title=Zeitgeist|url=http://www.wordsoftheworld.co.uk/videos/zeitgeist.html|work=Words of the World|publisher=[[Brady Haran]] ([[University of Nottingham]])|author=Dirk Goettsche}}

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[[Category:Concepts in the philosophy of history]]
[[Category:German words and phrases]]