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Oswald Spengler
Decline of the West
Oswald Spengler (May 29, 1880 - May 8, 1936) was a German philosopher and mathematician.
His work The Decline of the West argues that the development of civilizations
follows a recognizable series of repetitive rises and falls.
Spengler, a man of wide education with a PhD in philosophy, conceived the idea for
"The Decline of the West" during the Agadir Crisis
of 1911, when he formed the opinion that a general European war was inevitable.
Spengler's work was written largely during the times of the carnage of
the first world war, the first volume being published in 1918.
According to Spengler:-
.....The future of the West is not a limitless tending upwards and onwards for all
time towards our presents ideals, but a single phenomenon of history,
strictly limited and defined as to form and duration, which covers a
few centuries and can be viewed and, in essentials, calculated from
available precedents. With this enters the age of gigantic conflicts,
in which we find ourselves today. It is the transition from Napoleonism
to Caesarism, a general phase of evolution, which occupies at least two
centuries and can be shown to exist in all Cultures.....
.....The last century [the 19th] was the winter of the West, the victory of materialism
and scepticism, of socialism, parliamentarianism, and money. But in this century
blood and instinct will regain their rights against the power of money and intellect.
The era of individualism, liberalism and democracy, of humanitarianism and freedom,
is nearing its end. The masses will accept with resignation the victory of the Caesars,
the strong men, and will obey them.....
Spengler had been influenced by a cultural tendency, over the last quarter of the
19th century by many
people, to suggested that the then modern era of the West bore significant
similarities to the Hellenistic era and the late Roman Republic, a period
running roughly from the death of Alexander the Great (330 B.C.) to the
assassination of Julius Caesar (44 B.C.).
Based on such a comparison of
historical situation Spengler considered that the West was entering a
period of two centuries of
wars for world power, like that between the Battles of Cannae (216 B.C.) and
Actium (31 B.C.).
According to Spengler under the emerging Caesars:-
.....Life will descend to a level of general uniformity,
a new kind of primitivism, and the world will be better for it.....
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![[Spengler, decline of the west]](philosophy.gif)
western civilization, Decline of the West, decline