YES BUT in philosophy ZEITGEIST [ONE WORD, NOT 2 WORDS!]is a conceptual theory and has nothing to do with the actual separate word meanings.
For example,
Kant`s “Categorical Imperative” is a philosophical theoretical concept and has nothing to do with “categories” nor is it a command, an i.e. an “imperative”.
The Categorical Imperative is a dispositional method of giving paths to test the right or wrong of happenings in life and to criticize and ascertain the true good or evil of the latter. A direct command [imperative]to do exact deeds it is not.
It is a philosophical theoretical concept. as is “ZEITGEIST”=
ZEITGEIST has nothing to do with the separate meanings of the separate words. But together as ONE WORD, ZEITGEIST, IT HAS BEEN ASCRIBED A PHILOSOPHICAL MEANING BY PHILOSPHERS
< and it just ain`t “Spirit of the times”, which sounds like an advertisement for coca cola.
“Zeitgeist” may have a specialized meaning in the argot of philosophers, but in German, it means “spirit of the times,” and that is also the popular connotation of the term in English. If you don’t believe me, do a German-language search on Google for the term, such as “Zeitgeist der 1920er Jahren” or “Zeitgeist vor dem Ersten Weltkrieg” and see what you retrieve.
According to Noah Webster, "Zeitgeist" means "the spirit of the age. trend of thought and feeling in a period"--as I have explained.