 | This article maylendundue weight to certain ideas, incidents, or controversies. Pleasehelp improve it by rewriting it in abalanced fashion that contextualizes different points of view.(March 2018) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
In 18th- and 19th-centuryGerman philosophy, aZeitgeist[1] (German pronunciation:[ˈtsaɪtɡaɪst]ⓘ;lit. 'spirit of the age'; capitalized in German) is an invisible agent, force, ordaemon dominating the characteristics of a givenepoch inworld history.[2] The term is usually associated withGeorg W. F. Hegel, contrasting with Hegel's use ofVolksgeist "national spirit" andWeltgeist "world-spirit".
Its coinage and popularization precede Hegel, and are mostly due toHerder andGoethe.[3] Other philosophers who were associated with such concepts includeSpencer[year needed] andVoltaire.[year needed][4]
Contemporary use of the term sometimes, more colloquially, is similar to theOverton Window in referring to a schema of fashions or fads that prescribe what is considered to be acceptable or tasteful for an era: e.g., in fields likearchitecture,psychotherapy, orjournalism.[4]
Hegel inPhenomenology of the Spirit (1807) uses bothWeltgeist andVolksgeist, but prefers the phraseGeist der Zeiten "spirit of the times" over thecompoundZeitgeist.[5]
The Hegelian concept is in contrast to theGreat Man theory propounded byThomas Carlyle, which sees history as the result of the actions of heroes and geniuses. In contrast, Hegel perceived such "great men", specificallyNapoleon, as the "embodiment of the world-spirit" (Die Weltseele zu Pferde "theworld-soul on horseback"[6]).[7] 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][page needed] the social circumstances at the time.[7]
Great Man theory and zeitgeist theory may be included in two main areas of thought inpsychology.[7] For instance, Great Man theory is very similar to thetrait 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,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 fromÉmile Durkheim and recently developed intosocial capital theory as exemplified by the work ofPatrick Hunout.
These two perspectives have been combined to create what is known as theinteractional approach to leadership.[7] This approach asserts that leadership is developed through the mixing of personality traits and the situation. Further, this approach was expressed by social psychologistKurt Lewin by the equation B = f(P, E) where behavior (B) is a function (f) of the person (P) and the environment (E).
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, 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. InSilicon Valley, a number of people (Peter Thiel, Alistair Davidson, Mac Levchin,Nicholas G. Carr,Vinod Khosla[8]) 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 muchincrementalism now."[9]
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, andbusiness models 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).[10][11][12][13]
Authority control databases: National |
|---|
