Anglo-American Common Sense and German Geist

Abstract

IN 1927, the German professor of Romance languages, Eduard Wechsler, published a book called Esprit und Geist; Versuch einer Wesenskunde des Deutschen und Franzosischen, in which he tried to set off the national character of the French against that of the Germans by contrasting the respective meanings of the two words. Ever since reading that book I have been wondering whether common sense could not be added as characteristic of the English' and, perhaps, of the Americans too. Everybody knows, of course, that there are great differences between the English and Americans and that general living conditions, history, social structure, and political organization have influenced the American people along quite different lines. It may even be that some Englishmen, who are especially proud of their common sense, think but little of American common sense. That may or may not be. The point is that in England and America people have over and over again appealed to common sense as a criterion of truth in practical life as well as in the field of philosophical studies.2 On the other hand there has always been a tradition of Geist in England