University of Virginia Library

Search this document 
Dictionary of the History of Ideas

Studies of Selected Pivotal Ideas
  
  

expand sectionII. 
expand sectionII. 
expand sectionII. 
expand sectionVI. 
expand sectionVI. 
expand sectionVI. 
expand sectionVI. 
expand sectionIII. 
expand sectionI. 
expand sectionVI. 
collapse sectionVI. 
  
expand sectionI. 
expand sectionVI. 
expand sectionVI. 
expand sectionVI. 
expand sectionVI. 
expand sectionVI. 
expand sectionIV. 
expand sectionIV. 
expand sectionII. 
expand sectionIV. 
expand sectionV. 
expand sectionIII. 
expand sectionVI. 
expand sectionIII. 
expand sectionIII. 
expand sectionV. 
expand sectionVI. 
expand sectionIII. 
expand sectionIII. 
expand sectionVI. 
expand sectionVI. 
expand sectionVI. 
expand sectionV. 
expand sectionV. 
expand sectionVII. 
expand sectionV. 
expand sectionI. 
expand sectionI. 
expand sectionV. 
expand sectionVI. 
expand sectionVII. 
expand sectionIII. 
expand sectionIII. 
expand sectionIII. 
expand sectionVII. 
expand sectionIII. 
expand sectionI. 
expand sectionIII. 
expand sectionVI. 
expand sectionII. 
expand sectionVI. 
expand sectionI. 
expand sectionV. 
expand sectionIII. 
expand sectionI. 
expand sectionVII. 
expand sectionVII. 
expand sectionII. 
expand sectionVI. 
expand sectionV. 
expand sectionV. 
expand sectionI. 
expand sectionII. 
expand sectionII. 
expand sectionIV. 
expand sectionV. 
expand sectionV. 
expand sectionV. 
expand sectionII. 
expand sectionII. 
expand sectionV. 
expand sectionV. 
expand sectionIV. 

Volksgeist (also Volksseele, Nationalgeist or Geist der
Nation, Volkscharakter,
and in English “national char-
acter”) is a term connoting the productive principle


491

of a spiritual or psychic character operating in different
national entities and manifesting itself in various crea-
tions like language, folklore, mores, and legal order.

Connotatively, the German word Geist is related in
meaning to the Hebrew ruah, to the Greek pneuma,
and to the Latin spiritus. Volksgeist is the spirit (Geist)
of a people expressing itself in certain articulated crea-
tions. The shift to spirit as against expression, follows
the shift from the letter of the law to the spirit of the
law as in Saint Paul (II Corinthians 3:6). To the extent
that the term is related to genius or to génie (as a
derivation from genius), it is associated with the Roman
idea of genius loci, the attendant spirit of a place,
household or city, e.g., genius urbis Romae. Along with
other parallel terms, the term Geist and Volksgeist,
however, connote a spirit not outside but inside a
certain entity.