Hellenistic-Roman Stoicism:

Chapter I pages 33, 36, Chapter III page 111, Chapter IV page 138, and above 347

 

Apollonian soul:

reference to the Apollonian (Greco-Roman) Culture/Civilization

 

Socrates:

see Chapter I page 14, Chapter X page 347

 

Stoa:

see above page 347

 

Epictetus

see above page 347

 

Marcus Aurelius

see Chapter VI page 213

 

India:

reference to the Culture/Civilization of India which according to Spengler was born between 1500-1200 BC (its Spring), with a Winter circa the first Century AD

 

Brahman life (pre 250 BC, post 250 BC): * see EndNote<A>

highest ranking of the 4 social classes in Hindu India; traced to the late Vedic period when Indo-European-speaking settlers in N. India were already divided into castes (Brahmans, or priests, warriors, traders and labourers); they were venerated as it was believed they were of greater ritual purity than members of other castes & they alone were capable of performing certain religious tasks.  The study and recitation of the sacred scriptures was traditionally reserved for them & for centuries Indian scholarship was in their hands.  The post-Vedic period of the Second Urbanisation (600-200 BC) saw a decline of Brahmanism.  The growth of cities threatened the income & patronage of the rural Brahmins; the rise of Buddhism threatened their core religious values.  Between third century BC & first century AD there are no historical references to Brahmin, sacrifice or ritualistic acts.  Buddhism crowded them out; they had lost their elite patronage & were confined to rural areas.  The attraction & spread of Buddhism eroded many Vedic religion tenants (caste system, sacrifices, rituals, Atman).

 

King Asoka:

3rd king of the Mauryan Empire (322-185 BC) ruled 268-232 BC; famous for his renunciation of war, development of the concept of dhamma (pious social conduct) & promotion of Buddhism; effective ruler for the Indian empire, which ran from Iran to most of the Indian subcontinent; he conquered Kalinga in 260 BC in a destructive war which resulted in over 100,000 deaths & 150,000 deportations.  After witnessing this he converted to Buddhism & promoted its spread across Asia; he established Ashoka pillars & edicts, sent Buddhist monks to Sri Lanka & Central Asia & established monuments marking significant sites in the life of Buddha.

 

the Vedanta (before, after Buddha): * see EndNote<B>

aka the Upanishads, meaning "last chapters, parts of the Veda"; late Vedic Sanskrit texts of religious teaching & ideas, spiritual core of Hinduism; composed over a vast time scale, the earliest from the 6th century BC, through the Maurya period (322 to 185 BC) and the last in late 1st-millennium BC to 15th-century AD; the Vedas focus on mantras, benedictions, rituals, ceremonies & sacrifices; in contrast the younger, more recent Upanishads deal with meditation, philosophy & nature of existence; they are the most widely known texts of Vedic literature; the central ideas in all of the Upanishads are the concepts of Brahman (ultimate reality) and Ātman (soul, self), their thematic focus is “know that you are the Ātman”.  While the Vedas emphasized rituals and the Brahmanas text serve as a liturgical manual for those rituals, the spirit of the Upanishads is opposed to ritual.  The opposition to the ritual is not explicit in the oldest Upanishads.  On occasions, the Upanishads extend the task of the ritual by making the ritual allegorical and giving it philosophical meaning; they play a major role in the development of spiritual ideas in India, reflecting a transition from Vedic ritualism towards new ideas & institutions

 

Buddha:

see Chapter I page 12, Chapter III page 111, Chapter X pages 341, 344

 

ethical socialism:

see page above 342

 

Civilization:

the last of the 2 stages of higher Cultures- the first being Culture, the second Civilization, characterized by urbanisation.

 

Rousseau (his Return to the state of Nature):

see Chapter VI page 207 (nature)

 

Rousseau:

(1712-78), Enlightenment thinker

see Chapter I page 33, Chapter IV page 149, Chapter VI page 207

 

Schopenhauer:

Chapter I page 7, Chapter I page 45, Chapter  IX-308, and above page 342,

 

Hebbel:

see Chapter I pages 24, 45, Chapter IV page 143, Chapter VIII page 290

 

Wagner:

see Chapter I pages 35, 45 Chapter III pages 97, 111, Chapter VII pages-220, 222, 223 Chapter VIII pages 286, 291, 292, 293, Chapter IX page 327

 

Nietzsche:

see Chapter I, page 11, 24 Chapter VI, page 191 Chapter VII, pages 241, 245, 252 Chapter VIII, page 282 Chapter 9, pages 308, 315, 335 and above pages 342, 346, 348, 350

 

Ibsen:

Chapter I pages 20, 24, 45, Chapter IV page 143, 156

 

Strindberg:

See Chapter I page 24

 

Nietzsche (Coming of Nihilism):

nihilism surfaces repeatedly in his published works but was especially explicit in his notebooks "The Will to Power, An Attempt at a Revaluation of All Values" (a title given posthumously, published 1901), in volume 1, Book 1 (First Book. European nihilism) it is discussed at length.  He characterized nihilism as emptying the world & especially human existence of meaning, purpose, comprehensible truth, or essential value.

 

nihilism:

philosophical view that all knowledge and values are baseless; all knowledge & values are subjective; commonly presented life is believed to be without objective meaning, purpose, or intrinsic value; morality does not exist;

 

Egyptian:

reference to the Culture/Civilization of Egypt which according to Spengler was born between 2900-2400 BC (its Spring), with a Winter circa 1200 BC

 

Arabian:

reference to the Magian Culture/Civilization which according to Spengler was born between the 1st century & 4th century AD (its Spring), with a Winter circa 1250 AD

 

Chinese:

reference to the Culture/Civilization of China which according to Spengler was born between 1300-800 BC(its Spring), with a Winter circa 220 AD

 

Hellenistic (bigness): * see EndNote<C>

Spengler assigns Hellenism, Hellenistic painting & its architecture to the Civilization period, the initial stages, Autumn.

 

modern European achievement: * see EndNote<C>

somewhat vague reference but in context refers to European & American architecture of the early 20th & late 19th century

 

Mass slavery: * see EndNote <D>

Slavery in the Roman Empire was a major economic component.  In the first Century BC it is estimated that as much as 30 to 40% of the population were slaves.  For the Empire as a whole, between 260-425 AD the slave population is estimated to be just under 5 million or 10-15% of the population, most owned by a tiny (2% of the population ) elite. Half of these worked in rural agricultural, another quarter worked in towns & cities as domestics or workers in commercial or manufacturing enterprises.

 

mass machine production: * see EndNote <D>

production of large amounts of standardized products in a constant flow, especially on assembly lines, it was popularized by henry Ford in the 1910s & soon replaced all other production methods (job production & batch production); techniques include standardized sizes, production lines, & critically the 19th century practises of machine tools & interchangeable parts; it is applied to various products, from fluids & particulates handled in bulk (food, fuel, chemicals and mined minerals), to parts and assemblies of parts (household appliances and automobiles)

 

"Progress":  * see EndNote<E>

movement towards a refined, improved, or otherwise desired state, focused on advancements in technology, science & social organization which have occurred & which will continue to result in an improved human condition; introduced early 19th-century, notably by Auguste Comte (1798-1857) & Herbert Spencer (1820-1903), although an early form of the idea is present in the Enlightenment's philosophies of history.

 

Ataraxia: * see EndNote<E>

Greek meaning "imperturbability", "equanimity", or "tranquillity", term first used in Greek philosophy by Pyrrho, subsequently Epicurus & the Stoics; it is a mental state of robust equanimity characterized by on-going freedom from distress & worry. 

​

Alexandrianism: * see EndNote<F>

culture (of literature, philosophy, medicine, and the sciences) that developed in Alexandria in the Hellenistic & Roman periods.  In context, this refers to the first Alexandrian School (306-30 BC, from the Ptolemaic dynasty to the Roman conquest) which was an intellectual wave literary (poetry) & scientific in nature, an attempt to continue & develop the old Hellenic culture under new conditions.  The city attracted a wide range of scholars & disciplines which included literature, philosophy & the sciences.  It also included the first great medical school of antiquity. 

 

modern Science: * see EndNote<F>

Faustian Science- The 18th century saw the giants emerge- Leibniz & Newton; the foundations of medicine, mathematics & physics were laid, biological taxonomy was born, a new grasp of magnetism & electricity emerged, chemistry matured.  The pace quickens in the 19th century with the use of precision instruments, the end of antiquated labels "natural philosophy" & "natural history", replaced by "biologist", "physicist", "scientist", increased professionalization & specialization in studying nature & the concomitant reduction in amateurs, greater cultural authority of “scientists”

 

Pergamum: * see EndNote<G>

reference to the Pergamum alter

see Chapter II page 85, Chapter VI page 205

 

Bayreuth: * see EndNote<G>

Wagner conceived & promoted the idea of a special festival to showcase his music & vision for the staging of his works, in particular his opera cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen & Parsifal.  Performances would be held in a specially designed theatre as baroque opera houses were too small for the extended orchestras his operas required.  The city officials of Bayreuth proved amenable to Wagner & in 1874 building started on the Bayreuth Festspielhaus.  Here in 1876 it debuted with the first performance of the entire ring cycle.  Since then the Festival has become a pilgrimage destination for Wagnerians.

 

Aristotle (social conditions): * see EndNote<H>

The focus of Aristotle (in the Politics, written 335–323 BC) is on the polis & citizen; both natural entities; men are naturally political animals & the polis is the developed political form from a natural community.  Its purpose is ethical to allow some men to live a virtuous life, achieve happiness, a life based on rationality.  Within the polis we find women, slaves & citizens.  Citizens must be rational & have the right to participate in the polis.  Women cannot be enfranchised as their rationality is limited and slaves are by nature to be ruled, not rulers or citizens.  Aristotle categorized the various constitutions of the polis into “correct” forms: monarchy, aristocracy, polity, & 3 deviant forms (tyranny, oligarchy, democracy).  In oligarchy the dominant class is the wealthy; in democracy the dominant class are the poor.  Correct constitutions aim to promote the common good, deviant constitutions work to benefit the ruling group alone.  In the ideal constitution, all citizens possess moral virtue & the equipment to carry it out in practice & attain a life of excellence & happiness.  All will hold political office & possess private property, with a common education system for all citizens.  Where this ideal cannot be met, the next best form is Polity, in which the rule & ruler are equals, appropriate when the ruled & ruler have equal rational capacities.  In this form neither the poor nor the rich rule, but rather the middle class.  This will avoid faction & extremes.

 

Marx (social conditions): * see EndNote<H>

historical materialism (based on scientific principles) was the name of Marxist theory: men are naturally productive, they must produce their means of subsistence in order to satisfy material needs.  This creates new needs of a material & social nature; forms of society arise corresponding to the development of the means of production.  Material life conditions social life.  As the means of production develop economic structures rise & fall.  Marx lists several forms of society (ancient, based on slave agrarian production, feudal based on serf agrarian production & capitalism based on a proletariat class in an industrial society).   In each case 1 class exploits, a 2nd class is exploited.  Change occurs when an exploited class rebels, a new class rises up & a new forms of society emerges (thesis: antithesis=synthesis).  Communism, in which private property & money are eliminated, will emerge once the proletariat are aware of alternatives

 

inward finishedness:

Spengler’s term for the completion of all that is possible, the complete fulfilment of a Destiny of a Culture

 

megalopolitan man (in 2000 AD):

Faustian man in the Winter of the Faustian Civilization period.

 

Roman Age:

Spengler notes the Roman period as being form 100 BC to 100 AD.  Roughly, this age begins in 146 BC when following the destruction of Carthage in the 3rd Punic War (146 BC); now Rome was the only remaining major power in the Mediterranean.  The Republic had already gained hegemony over the Greek city states & Asia Minor, with victory in the 4th Macedonian War (150–148 BC) & triumph over the Achaean League at the Battle of Corinth, 146 BC.  Roman domination continued for another 270 years up to the Pseudomorphosis which may be arbitrarily dated from the dedication of Hadrian’s Pantheon (126 AD).  The Roman Age, the final age of the Apollonian Civilization, was its Winter.