Scholastic:

aka Schoolmen

see above page 305

 

Mystic: * see EndNote<A>

more a mental framework than theology; includes the Biblical (seeing "hidden" interpretations of Scriptures), the liturgical (mystery of the Eucharist) and the spiritual (experiential knowledge of God).

 

Moorish Spain, Sicily & the East: * see EndNote<B>

The infant Faustian culture of the Middle Ages had many contact points with the Magian civilization, notably Spain but also in Sicily.  As well as this Islamic art was widely imported & admired by European elite.  A wide variety of portable objects were imported, through Italy & especially Venice.  In many areas European-made goods could not match the quality of Islamic or Byzantine work until late in the Middle Ages.

 

revelation-religions:

Judaism, Christianity & Islam, all posit revelation as the basic category of religious knowledge. Human beings know God & his will as God has freely revealed himself, his qualities, purpose, instructions.  These religions have texts they view as supernaturally inspired.  Orthodox Jews, Christians & Muslims believe that the Torah was received from Yahweh on Biblical Mount Sinai.  Christians believe both the Old Testament & New Testament were inspired by God.  Muslims believe the Quran was revealed by God to Muhammad word by word through the angel Gabriel.

 

The Kabbala:

see Chapter VII page 248

 

Jewish philosophers (Medieval religion): * see EndNote<C>

During the Hellenistic Age, Jewish philosophy developed, but it was outside of the tradition of rabbinic Judaism.  In the 10th century AD Jews living in Muslim lands started to write systematic treatises of philosophy, imitating the Muslim philosophers.  This phase of Jewish philosophy reached its peak with Maimonides (1135-1204).  He was born in Moorish Spain (Cordoba) & worked in Morocco & Egypt.  He synthesised reason & religion. 

 

Spinoza:

(1632-77) Dutch philosopher, of Portuguese, Sephardic-Jewish origin; early Enlightenment thinker, one of the great rationalists of 17th-century. He was inspired by Descartes.  He lived an outwardly simple life as an optical lens grinder.  He turned down rewards & honours throughout his life, including prestigious teaching positions.  His philosophy is contained in 2 books: the Theologico-Political Treatise (published 1670) & the Ethics (published posthumously 1677). 

 

Schirazi:

aka Ṣadr ad-Dīn Muḥammad Shīrāzī or Mulla Sadrā (1571-1640); Iranian Twelver Shi'a & Sufi Islamic philosopher, theologian and ‘Ālim, led the Iranian 17th century renaissance; most important philosopher in the Muslim world since 1600.  His main work is The Transcendent Philosophy of the Four Journeys of the Intellect, or simply Four Journeys.  Though not its founder, he is considered the master of the Illuminationist school of Philosophy, a seminal figure who synthesized the many tracts of the Islamic Golden Age philosophies into what he called the Transcendent Theosophy. He produced new philosophical insights in dealing with the nature of reality" and created "a major transition from essentialism to existentialism" in Islamic philosophy (his existentialism is not comparable to Western existentialism).   Spengler is comparing him to Spinoza who was a Jew- BOTH were rooted in the Magian Civilization.

 

Arabian dualism: * see EndNote<D>

Substance dualism is found in early Islamic philosophy & metaphysics.  Islamic thinkers distinguished more clearly than Aristotle (whom they read) between essence and existence.  Existence is the domain of the contingent and the accidental; it is what we experience every day.  Essence endures within a being beyond the accidental (a borrowed Neo-Platonist idea).  Substance dualism posits that there exist in the universe 2 fundamentally different kinds of substance: physical (matter) & non-physical (consciousness).  One of the motivations for this theory is the belief that mind & matter (or body) are so different in their essences that one cannot affect the other.  Avicenna (980-1037), a father of Islamic philosophy, distinguished between essence (Mahiat) & existence (Wujud).  His Floating Man thought experiment suggested that the soul is a perfection, an immaterial substance independent of the body.  The soul is perceived intellectually, which entails the soul's separateness from the body.

and see above page 305

 

Spinoza (force concept):

Spinoza's view of physical nature appears as an unstable hybrid, even incoherent.  It is far from clear that any thorough & consistent account of his physical theory can be found.  He says too little that is focused and direct.  His various partial & indirect discussions of such fundamental topics as inertia or the individuation of bodies are underdeveloped & problematic, and appear to be in tension with one another.  Unlike Descartes & Leibniz, both top flight physical theorists & mathematicians, both of whom made substantial contributions to physical science, Spinoza made no fundamental contributions.  Nor was he a systematic experimenter.  His contributions to the historical development of physical theory are minimal.  His physical science is largely Cartesian, both in content & rationalistic method.  He never presented an original physical theory as such.  Most of his writing on physical theory is in the service of other ends: used to explain Descartes' philosophy, or metaphysical, in elaborating, for example, the relationships between God or Nature as the single substance.

 

Galileo and Descartes (force):

Both of these thinkers advanced Faustian physics.   Galileo was a pioneer here & corrected many of the errors about motion & force in Aristotelian physics.  He concluded that objects retain their velocity in the absence of any impediments to their motion, which contradicted the Aristotelian hypothesis that a body could only remain in so-called "violent" motion so long as an agent of change (the "mover") continued to act on it.  Descartes continued to advance physics & discovered an early form of the law of conservation of mechanical momentum (a measure of the motion of an object), and envisioned it as pertaining to motion in a straight line, as opposed to perfect circular motion, as Galileo had envisioned it.

 

ipso facto:

Latin, adverb meaning: by the fact itself; by the very nature of the deed:

 

Philosopher's Stone:

see Chapter VII, page 248

 

Spinoza (his Deity): * see EndNote<E>

ideas do not originate from themselves but from an external cause; known characteristics must come from some prior source.  If man has the idea of God, then God must exist before this thought since man cannot create an idea from his imagination.  God is the sum of the natural & physical laws of the universe, NOT an individual entity or creator; God is the substance of the universe, these do not share attributes or essences; God is a “substance” with an infinite number of attributes, thus the attributes possessed by any other substances must also be possessed by God.  Therefore, God is the sum of all the substances of the universe.  .

and see below

 

causa sui:

Latin, meaning "cause of itself" denotes something which is generated within itself.  This was central to the works of Spinoza, who uses the word Substance to stand or God.  In his Ethics Spinoza states: “By substance I understand what is in itself and is conceived through itself”.  Therefore his God is an infinite, necessary and uncaused, indivisible being.

and see below

 

Nature-picture (Faustian):

Spengler’s Faustian Nature picture is based on the Newtonian mechanical "First Cause", the Leibnitz calculus/function concept & materialism of the Enlightenment.  These are the roots of Western cause/effect science

 

Spinoza (his determinism):

He believed in a deterministic universe in which "All things in nature proceed from certain necessity and with the utmost perfection.  Nothing happens by chance; nothing is contingent.  Spinoza’s God is a system of which everything in nature is a part; "things could not have been produced by God in any other way or in any other order than is the case."  He directly challenges a transcendental God that actively responds to events in the universe.  Everything that has and will happen is a part of a long chain of cause-and-effect, which, at a metaphysical level, humans are unable to change. No amount of prayer or ritual will sway God.  Spinoza held that absolutely everything that happens occurs through the operation of necessity.  Even human behaviour is fully determined, with freedom being our capacity to know that we are determined and to understand why we act as we do.

​

Baghdad (orthodox wisdom):

Qadar, Arabic for predestination, is one of Islam's 6 articles of faith (along with the Oneness of Allah, the Revealed Books, the Prophets of Islam, the Day of Resurrection and Angels).  It is mentioned in the Quran as the "Decree" of Allah.  It reflects the Muslim doctrine that Allah has measured out the span of every person's life, their lot of good or ill fortune, and the fruits of their efforts.  Allah does not need to force anyone to do good or evil by interfering with his will, and nobody will bear witness that Allah did so.  This concept, Qadar, was the focal point for the debates between the Qadarites, who affirmed free will, and the Jabarites, who maintained the belief in fatalism.  They debated the conflict between the predestination of sinners to hell on the one hand and "divine justice" on the other, some asserting that to be punished for what is beyond someone's control is unjust.  The Jabriyah, were an early Islamic philosophical school, based on the belief that humans are controlled by predestination, without having choice or free will.  They originated during the Umayyad dynasty in Basra (661-750 AD). The first representative of this school was Al-Ja'd ibn Dirham (executed in 724). 

 

Kismet:

see Chapter IV, page 129

 

more geometrico method:

Latin, adverb, meaning geometrically, Spengler is referring to Spinoza’s Ethics, whose Latin title was: Ethica, ordine geometrico demonstrate [Ethical order set forth geometrically].  He applies Euclid’s method to philosophy; he posits a small number of definitions & axioms & from these he derives hundreds of propositions & corollaries (the same method Euclid uses in his The Elements, a collection of definitions, postulates, propositions, theorems & constructions covering geometry, numbers & lines).  Spinoza wrote his first treatise (Tractatus Theologico-Politicus, 1670) in Latin not the vernacular Dutch, to avoid censorship by the Dutch authorities.  He also used Latin for his Ethics.

and see below

 

Talmud:

see Chapter VII, page 248

 

the Zend Avesta:

aka Avesta

see above page 306

 

the Arabian Kalaam:

aka Kalām; Arabic, Islamic scholastic theology, literally "speech, word, utterance"; its use in Islamic theology comes from the expression "Word of God" (Kalām Allāh) found in the Qur'an.  This study established & defended the tenets of Islamic faith against doubters & detractors. 

 

Spinoza (his Ethics):

full title: Ethics, Demonstrated in Geometrical Order, a philosophical treatise in Latin, 1664-65, published posthumously 1677.  Spinoza’s magnum opus; opposed Descartes' philosophy of mind–body dualism & his most ambitious attempt to apply the method of Euclid in philosophy.  Written with a forbidding mathematical structure modelled on Euclid's geometry, it contains many -unresolved obscurities & has been described as a "superbly cryptic masterwork."

 

German Romanticism:

Romanticism emphasised emotion & individualism as well as the glorification of all the past & nature, preferring medieval period to the Classical.  It elevated folk art & ancient custom to something noble.  In contrast to the Enlightenment rejection of the Middle Ages (as the “Dark Ages”) the Romantics revived medievalism.  Heidelberg (the centre of the movement) elevated medievalism & valued art & narrative it perceived to be from the medieval period.  Important motifs in German Romanticism include fairy tales, legends, Germanic myths & magic.  The German Romantics "Gothic novel" was based on the terrifying side of the Middle Ages & features castles, ghosts, monsters, necromancy and secret societies (Schauerroman). 

 

German Romanticism (Saracenic art & poetry):

Orientalism & Romanticism (1792–1830) emerge almost simultaneously.  Depictions of Islamic Moors & Turks, Muslims of North Africa & West Asia were not new, but it was not until the 19th century that "Orientalism" in the arts became established.  Here the Orient as exotic & decadently corrupt is fully articulated.  This art concentrated on Near-Eastern Islamic cultures.  French artists Delacroix (1798–1863) & Gérôme (1824–1904 ) painted many depictions of Islamic culture, including lounging odalisques, stressing lassitude & visual spectacle.  In architecture we see Neo-Moorish, an exotic revival architecture adopted in both Europe & the Americas in the wake of the Romantic fascination with all things oriental.  It reached the height of its popularity after the mid-19th century, part of a widening vocabulary of articulated decorative ornament outside the familiar classical & Gothic.  One of the father’s of the Romantic age, Goethe, is a case study.  Age 23 he wrote a hymn in praise of the prophet Muhammad.  His study of the Koran (1772), inspired him to outline a tragedy entitled “Mohomet”; though the work was never carried out, it reflects the pull of the Orient.  His “West-Eastern Divan” (1814-19), a collection of 250 lyrical poems in oriental style, was inspired by the Persian poet Hafez.  He praises the Koran as being severe, elevated, formidable, and in parts truly sublime.  He even refused to deny the allegation that he himself was a Muslim.  At age 70 he declared publicly that he was considering “devoutly celebrating that holy night in which the Koran in its entirety was revealed to the prophet from on high”.

 

Schelling:

see Chapter page 59

 

Oken:

(1779-1851) German naturalist, botanist, biologist & ornithologist; he studied natural history and medicine at the universities of Freiburg and Würzburg. He went on to the University of Göttingen, where he became a unsalaried lecturer.  He published a slim work entitled "Plan of natural philosophy, the theory of the senses, with the classification of animals based on it" (1802). This was the first of a series of works which established him as a leader of the movement of "Naturphilosophie" in Germany.  In these works he extended to physical science the philosophical principles which Kant (1724–1804) had applied to epistemology & morality.  This approach was first sketched out by Fichte (1762–1814) & then elaborated on by Schelling (1775–1854).   Oken built on Schelling's work, producing a synthesis of what he held Schelling to have achieved.

 

Baader:

(1765-1841), German Catholic philosopher & theologian.  Resisting the empiricism of his day, he denounced most Western philosophy since Descartes as trending into atheism.  One of the most influential theologians of his age but has since fallen into obscurity.  He re-introduced theological engagement with Meister Eckhart into academia as well as Christianity and Theosophy.  Like the Scholastics he believed theology & philosophy were not opposed but that reason has to make clear the truths given by authority and revelation.  In his attempts to draw the realms of faith and knowledge closer he approaches the mysticism of Meister Eckhart, Paracelsus, and Böhme.  He taught that man’s existence depends upon God's cognition of us; all self-consciousness is at the same time God-consciousness, and all knowledge is consciousness of God.  In 1796, he returned to Germany and, came into contact with Schelling.  His work  during this period was influenced by that philosopher.  He was however no disciple of Schelling.  Their friendship continued till about the year 1822, when Baader's denunciation of modern philosophy in his letter to Tsar Alexander entirely alienated Schelling.

 

Gorres:

(1776-1848) German writer, philosopher, theologian, historian and journalist.  In the 1820s he began a study of the mystic testimonies of various epochs.  This included the mystical writers of the Middle Ages (eg María de Ágreda).  He worked to achieve a thorough comprehension of the nature of Christian mysticism.  He was a leading member of the Heidelberg Romantic group; in 1807 he published The Books of the German People.  At Koblenz in 1808, and worked as a teacher in a secondary school.  He began a study of Persian, and 2 years later published History of the Myths of the Asiatic World.  He followed this up 10 years alter with The Book of Heroes of Iran (a translation of part of the Shahnama, the epic of Firdousi).  His work On Christian Mysticism (4 vols., published 1836–1842) was a series of biographies of the saints, together with an exposition of Roman Catholic mysticism.

 

Descartes:

see Chapter I page 33

 

Kant (his Prolegomena):

see Chapter IV page 125