Discussion » Questions » Entertainment » Have you seen the movie 'Zeitgeist'? What is the meaning of the term 'zeitgeist'?

Have you seen the movie 'Zeitgeist'? What is the meaning of the term 'zeitgeist'?

Urban Dictionary: fancy German term frequently misused by people to make themselves sound smarter than they really are. 

Posted - July 8, 2017

Responses


  • 44553
    Zeit means time and Geist means ghost. I don't know what it means when you combine them but I'm sure your definition is appropriate.
      July 8, 2017 6:30 PM MDT
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  • 46117
    More like SPIRIT.  Not so much ghost.  So it is the spirit of the time.
      July 8, 2017 7:14 PM MDT
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  • 13395
    Spirit of the time; Trump spirit of the time: New World Order. Dictatorship. 
      July 8, 2017 7:28 PM MDT
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  • 46117
    The Zeitgeist (spirit of the age or spirit of the time) is the dominant set of ideals and beliefs that motivate the actions of the members of a society in a particular period in time. For example, the Zeitgeist of modernism motivated the creation of new forms in the fields of architecture, art, and fashion during much of the 20th century. Zeitgeist is a powerful force embedded in the individuals of a society.  The German word Zeitgeist, translated literally as "time mind" or "time spirit", is often attributed to the philosopher Georg Hegel, but he never actually used the word. In his works such as Lectures on the Philosophy of History, he uses the phrase der Geist seiner Zeit (the spirit of his time)—for example, "no man can surpass his own time, for the spirit of his time is also his own spirit."

    Other philosophers who were associated with such ideas include Herder and Spencer and Voltaire.  The concept contrasts with the Great Man theory popularized by Thomas Carlyle, which sees history as the result of the actions of heroes and geniuses.

    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 and therefore brings that culture to any given work of art. Furthermore, he believed that in the modern world it was impossible to produce classical art, which he believed represented a "free and ethical culture", which depended more on the philosophy of art and theory of art, rather than a reflection of the social construct, or Zeitgeist in which a given artist lives.

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      July 8, 2017 7:13 PM MDT
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  • 22891
    no
      July 9, 2017 5:11 PM MDT
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  • I have never seen such a movie, but I know some of several languages. In German, ZEIT means TIME, and GEIST means SPIRIT. It is characteristics of a given era in history, e.g. the Gay 90s, Roaring 20s, Swinging 60s, etc.
      July 16, 2017 1:15 PM MDT
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