Books - The Decline of the West

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	Books - The Decline of the West

The Decline of the West (German: Der Untergang des Abendlandes) is a two-volume work by Oswald Spengler, the first volume of which was published in the summer of 1918. Spengler revised this volume in 1922 and published the second volume, subtitled Perspectives of World History, in 1923.

The book includes the idea of the Muslims being Magian, Greeks being Apollonian, and the Westerners being Faustian, and according to its theories we are now living in the winter time of the Faustian civilization. His description of the Faustian civilization is where the populace constantly strives for the unattainable—making the western man a proud but tragic figure, for while he strives and creates he secretly knows the actual goal will never be reached.

Background

Decline was conceived and begun before the outbreak of World War I, and deliberately looks beyond the fate of Germany to include the fate of the West as a whole. He spent over a decade writing the two volumes, and as a consequence Decline became somewhat disorganized, overlong in places, and polemical.

Impact

Spengler created a worldview that resonated with the post WW-1 German culture. His grim view of an inexorable doom for western civilization implied acceptance of fate, but also offered a sense of freedom from the past. His historical idea influenced artists and architects, who used it as a justification for abandoning the historic styles, now no longer valid for the new era. Mies van der Rohe is known to have accepted Spengler's view, and used it as a framework to guide his search for a new architectural style that would represent the modern era.

His worldview also took a dim view of democracy as the type of government of the declining civilization. He argued that democracy is driven by money and therefore corrupt. The acceptence of this attitude by many readers hastened the failure of the Weimar democratic system and gave credence to the rise of Hitler as a dictator. Spengler initially supported the rise of a strong-willed leader type of government as the next phase after democracy fails.

Overview

Scholars now agree that the word "decline" more accurately renders Spengler's intended meaning, as opposed to the original German word "Untergang." Spengler would explain that he did not mean to describe a catastrophic occurrence, but rather a protracted fall—a twilight or sunset. "Untergang" can be interpreted in both manners, and after the Second World War, most critics and scholars chose to read it in the cataclysmic sense.

Spengler’s world-historical outlook is informed by two philosophers, Goethe and Nietzsche, the former more than the latter. His analytical approach is that of “Analogy. By these means we are enabled to distinguish polarity and periodicity in the world.”

Spengler's Cultures

Spengler lists eight High Cultures that have existed:

Babylonian
Egyptian
Chinese / Confucian-Taoist
Indian / Brahmanic
Aztec / Mayan
Hellenic / Classical / Apollonian
Magian / Arabian
Faustian / Western

Note: terms separated by a slash Spengler uses interchangeably (perhaps erroneously in retrospect).

Phases of rise and decline

:Main article: Spengler's civilization model

Spring: Intuition, powerful cultural creation from awakening souls, unity and abundance. :*Religion: Birth of a grand myth signifying a new conception of God. Fear and longing for the world. Earliest metaphysical organization of the world. High scholasticism. :*Art: Religious art considered as an integrated part of religious devotion. Gothic cathedrals, Doric temples. :*Politics: Feudalism, warrior aristocracies. Summer: Maturing consciousness. Earliest urban-civil socity and critical thought. :*Religion: Reformation: revolt of the religious moderates against the early religion. Beginnings of a purely philosophical movement. Contrasting idealistic and realistic systems. Mathematical breakthroughs leading to a new conception of the world. Rationalism. The depletion of mysticism from religion. :*Art: :*Politics: Absolutist states. Conflicts between aristocracy and monarchy. The political centre shifts from castles and estates to the cities. Fall: Urban rise. High point of disciplined organizational strength. :*Religion: Faith in the omnipotence of rationality. Cult of Nature. The height of mathematical thought. The last idealists. Theories of knowledge and logic. :*Art: :*Politics: Struggles between the aristocracy and the bourgeoisie. Revolutions. Napoleonism. Winter: Coming fissure in the world-urban civilization. Exhaustion of mental organization strength. Irreligiousness rises. :*Religion: Materialism: Cults of science, utility, and luck. Ethical-social ideals: philosophy without mathematics, scepticism. The last mathematical thinkers. Decline of abstract thinkers, and the rise of specialized academic philosophy. Spread of the last ideas. :*Art: End of symbolic art. All art becomes meaningless subjects of fashion. :*Politics: Democracy, the rule of the rich, followed by caesarism and bureaucracy.

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