Changes

==Ideas==

==Ideas==

''Decline of the West'' predicted the disintegration of European and American civilization after a violent "age of Caesarism," arguing by detailed analogies with other civilizations and interpreting history as the life of nine organic cultures: Egyptian (3400 BC-1200 BC), Indian (1500 BC-1100 BC), Chinese (1300 BC-AD 200), Classical (1100 BC-400 BC), Byzantine (AD 300-1100), Aztec (AD 1300-1500), Arabian (AD 300-1250), Mayan (AD 600-960), and Western (AD 900-1900).  

''Decline of the West'' predicted the disintegration of European and American civilization after a violent "age of Caesarism," arguing by detailed analogies with other civilizations and interpreting history as the life of nine organic cultures: Egyptian (3400 BC-1200 BC), Indian (1500 BC-1100 BC), Chinese (1300 BC-AD 200), Classical (1100 BC-400 BC), Byzantine (AD 300-1100), Aztec (AD 1300-1500), Arabian (AD 300-1250), Mayan (AD 600-960), and Western (AD 900-1900).  

Jumping across centuries and societies, Spengler adduced a remarkable variety of examples to support two key arguments. First culture is a fundamentally spiritual or ideal phenomenon; studying its history allows us to grasp its temporal character, its principle of becoming—of the world-as-history. It is this ideational or spiritual quality that authoritatively distinguished it from other Cultures. Using his strong background in art history and mathematics, Spengler sought to understand the unique "soul" or pattern of experience and creation of each civilization by comparing its forms of art, thought, and action. Thus the Western or "Faustian" soul is characterized by a yearning for infinity, which is equally expressed in the Gothic cathedral, the infinitesimal calculus, the music of Bach, worldwide imperialistic diplomacy, the radio, and modern techniques of credit banking.

Jumping across centuries and societies, Spengler adduced a remarkable variety of examples to support two key arguments. First culture is a fundamentally spiritual or ideal phenomenon; studying its history allows us to grasp its temporal character, its principle of becoming—of the world-as-history. It is this ideational or spiritual quality that authoritatively distinguished it from other Cultures. Using his strong background in art history and mathematics, Spengler sought to understand the unique "soul" or pattern of experience and creation of each civilization by comparing its forms of art, thought, and action. Thus the Western or "Faustian" soul is characterized by a yearning for infinity, which is equally expressed in the Gothic cathedral, the infinitesimal calculus, the music of Bach, worldwide imperialistic diplomacy, the radio, and modern techniques of credit banking.

Second, all cultures follow the same sequence of growth and decay in similar lengths of time. They pass through the stages of pre-culture, culture, and civilization, and are marked by identical crises. [[Alexander the Great]], for example, plays the same role in Classical culture as [[Napoleon]] in Western culture; [[Pythagoras]] resembles [[Martin Luther]]; [[Aristotle]] parallels [[Immanuel Kant]]; [[Stoicism]] in Rome is like  [[Socialism]] in Germany.  

Second, all cultures follow the same sequence of growth and decay in similar lengths of time. They pass through the stages of pre-culture, culture, and civilization, and are marked by identical crises. [[Alexander the Great]], for example, plays the same role in Classical culture as [[Napoleon]] in Western culture; [[Pythagoras]] resembles [[Martin Luther]]; [[Aristotle]] parallels [[Immanuel Kant]]; [[Stoicism]] in Rome is like  [[Socialism]] in Germany.  

Given that every culture passes a life cycle from youth through maturity and old age to death, it follows that Western civilization has now entered the final period of inevitable decline. More precisely, he identified the two stages of culture and civilization, and equated the second stage with degeneration. Spengler views the first decline of the West as applying to all cultural achievements and occurring with the transition from the first to the second stage during the 19th century, amid the prevalence of materialist and democratic values, and anticipates a second future decline with the victory of a growing mass of "coloreds" over a declining minority of "whites," or "Prussians," who as the potential elite of Western civilization at the political level would defend and preserve the remnants of its culture, although no change is envisaged in other cultural spheres.

Given that every culture passes a life cycle from youth through maturity and old age to death, it follows that Western civilization has now entered the final period of inevitable decline. More precisely, he identified the two stages of culture and civilization, and equated the second stage with degeneration. Spengler views the first decline of the West as applying to all cultural achievements and occurring with the transition from the first to the second stage during the 19th century, amid the prevalence of materialist and democratic values, and anticipates a second future decline with the victory of a growing mass of "coloreds" over a declining minority of "whites," or "Prussians," who as the potential elite of Western civilization at the political level would defend and preserve the remnants of its culture, although no change is envisaged in other cultural spheres.

==Aphorisms==

==Aphorisms==

* [[World history]]

* [[World history]]

====notes====

==References==

 

[[Category:Historians]]

[[Category:Historians]]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Spengler, Oswald}}

[[Category:Socialists]]