1. Emergence of the Concept. The distinction intro-
duced by Leibniz between dead power and living
power (Vis viva)—the latter being understood also as
a directive power—became the philosophical basis for
the idea of a directive principle within historical
entities guiding their existence in time and expressing
itself in their creations. As a guiding principle the
living power is not a logical or rational principle and
could thus be connected with various concepts expres-
sing the irrational directive principle of human crea-
tions and evaluations as the French goût, the Italian
gusto, the German Geschmack, or the English taste.
Gusto has sometimes been associated with ingenio.
Volksgeist as a guiding principle of peoples and
nations appears in the context of investigations into
the historical existence of peoples. The formulation of
the concept goes along with the stress laid on history.
The emphasis of Vico on the genetic aspect of a peo-
ple's life is thus one of the sources of the concept:
“since each family had its own religion, language,
lands, nuptials, name, arms, government, etc.” Again,
the importance attached by Vico to “common sense
... judgment without reflection, shared by an entire
class, an entire people, an entire nation, the entire
human race” can also be interpreted in terms of this
concept (I. Berlin, E. Auerbach).
Edmund Burke rejected the a priori character of the
science concerned with the construction of a common-
wealth, and put forward the experimental and histori-
cal aspect of this science and of political life in general.
Burke's view served as one of the sources of the attempt
to disclose the historical character of peoples and the
factors shaping their historical course.
Montesquieu in his L'Esprit des lois explicitly uses
the term “general spirit of nations”: “Mankind is influ-
enced by various causes: by the climate, by the religion,
by the laws, by the maxims of government, by prece-
dents, morals and customs; whence is formed a general
spirit of nations.” Here the “general spirit of nations”
is actually a result of different causes, some of them
of a natural character like climate. Climatic conditions
are discussed extensively by Montesquieu and by many
other writers who subsequently used the term Volks-
geist. Elsewhere it appears as a result of factors like
religion, laws, morals, and customs which were consid-
ered by many thinkers as expressions of the Volksgeist
proper. Yet Montesquieu says: “The Government most
conformable to nature is that which best agrees with
the humor and disposition of the people in whose favor
it is established.” He thus combines the principle of
nature as a norm with that of a people's genius as a
standard of government. Montesquieu's analysis of the
spirit of laws influenced a series of German thinkers
concerned with the spirit of the laws of the Teutschen
and inspired the concepts of a teutscher Nationalgeist,
teutsche Freiheit, etc. Friedrich Carl von Moser in Von
dem Deutschen national-Geist (1765), uses Montes-
quieu's concept and gives it a nationalistic and polemic
turn.
In Hume we find the concept “national character,”
a concept which recurs often in the nineteenth century.
In his description of this concept Hume stresses a
peculiar set of manners; the factors determining na-
tional character are partly “moral” (psychological) and
partly physical, the “moral” disposition being able to
alter even the natural one. In the context of this dis-
cussion Hume considers also the difference between
Negroes and whites, the former being, in his opinion,
naturally inferior to the latter; nature itself made an
original hierarchical distinction between these two
breeds of men. Here Hume's concept of national char-
acter goes beyond the domain of description and enters
the domain of evaluation.
Voltaire employs the term “genius of a people” in
his Philosophical Dictionary with a more general de-
scription of the term esprit. Speaking about different
cultural creations, he refers to the subtle spirit of the
“genius” of a nation. The study of manners (moeurs)
was one of the topics of Voltaire's reflections on history.
Climate, government, and religion are for him the
three factors influencing the human spirit.
The term “Nationalgeist” appears, possibly for the
first time, in the title of Carl Friedrich Moser's above-
mentioned book, Vom deutschen national-Geist (1765).
The concept has no specific meaning here; it connotes
merely the general patriotic ambiance. Moser is con-
cerned with certain political and social factors which
cause an artificial split among the Germans. He uses
this term also in a polemic with the Catholic Church
and its detrimental influence on Germany.
These ideas and their linguistic expressions found
their synthesis in the German term Volksgeist and its
derivations, Geist connoting—even in Kant's termi-
nology—not the intellectual or rational but the vital
directing factor in human life.
