Chapter I
Synopsis
AIM: predict the future of the West (European-American Culture/Civilization), the only culture currently alive. METHOD: trace the life cycle of earlier Culture/Civilization, each defined by a series of stages (birth, youth, adulthood, aged), a life cycle universal for ALL cultures, a biographic model to fit these earlier cultures & apply to the West.
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Analogy is the method to distinguish vital characteristics of cultures (periodicity and polarity); this will reveal the organic structure of history if used correctly; but it is often used carelessly; he cites examples of erroneous historical analogy.
III- Morphology of World History, a new philosophy, page 5
Spengler introduces a vital metaphysical concept: the distinction between the world as nature and the world as history [see table below]. Western history has to date only used the world as nature model. Kant posits cognition focused SOLELY on nature, he uses cause/effect (the logic of space). Causality & mathematics leads to a naturalistic approach, appropriate for science. In contrast, chronology and the idea of Destiny produce accounts appropriate to history. The logic of time leads to DESTINY filled with myths, religions & artistic thought all invisible to cognition based on nature.
IV- For whom is history? page 8
Nature is the understanding of empirical data formed by our senses. “World as history” is imagination understanding the living existence of the world in relation to a human’s life. These 2 possibilities of world formation are not mutually exclusive. If one perceives oneself as a single element in a stream of time, this is distinctly different to seeing oneself as finished & self-contained. Western perception is time distance oriented, but not all higher mankind has this, indeed it not comprehensible to Classical man.
Classical and Indian mankind ahistorical, page 9
The Greek was a “term”, complete, without reference to past or future, living in the present. Their historians produced work akin to mythologies, at best political commentaries, polar (not periodic) defining their histories as unique. The Indians without calendar, astronomy, were ahistorical, their texts lack proper fixed provenance (date, author). In contrast the Babylonians & Egyptians were profoundly historical. Likewise Western man is a series & as such seeks a before and an after.
V- The Egyptian mummy and the burning of the dead, page 13
Repeat of above: ahistorical Classical man versus Western man or Egyptian man. OS refers a prime Egyptian life symbol – the mummy, versus the Classical practice of burning the dead- the completion of death & denial of historical duration. Likewise Classical man denied portraiture & historical motives in its drama, the idea of evolution or collection of antiquities. In contrast with Chinese culture & its deep abiding historical feeling.
VI- The conventional scheme of world history (ancient-medieval-modern) page 15
Argument against Eurocentric history, Europe is a poor geographical term, secondly it minimizes/neglects ancient history. This gross historical foreshortening creates erroneous perspectives. The current historic perspective as Ptolemaic versus his Copernican system, a very deep criticism.
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Our historic model (ancient-medical-modern) is reflects the Magian culture (good versus evil). Joachim of Floris (early Western culture) added a Hegelian & Gothic third term (Age of the Father, Son, Holy Ghost), shattering this duality, giving it progress. But his vision loses meaning when used by a scientific age. Furthermore it is morally indefensible giving one’s own culture the high moral ground; each culture has its own form, cannot be judged outside.
Western philosophers (Kant) think in terms of universal truths, when in fact these are truths only for their own Culture/civilization. Universal validity is a fallacy. And for us to comprehend Classical roots is impossible; likewise for Russians or Chinese to grasp our philosophical “truths”.
Europe not a centre of gravity, page 23
The practical & ethical problems suggested by art (Ibsen, Nietzsche, Sophocles) are specific to their cultures. There are no absolute right or wrongs in world history.
IX- The only historical method is Goethe’s, page 25
History viewed as a living process, a world in motion, consideration of Destiny (not cause/effect), using analogy as a method; this reveals the language of history, its periodic structure and organic nature. OS introduces his 4 phase idea: youth-growth-maturity-decay (Spring/Summer/Autumn/Winter).
X- Ourselves and the Romans, page 26
Our Western age is chronologically equivalent to Hellenism; the World War corresponds to the transition from Hellenism to Roman.
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Nietzsche and Mommsen, page 28
Western views of the Greeks flawed by the Romanticist (Nietzsche) who only see literature; versus the materialists (Mommsen) who erroneously relate it to their own politics & economies.
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Repeat of above argument. Both schools flawed as they use cause/effect methods only & project their own value systems on an alien Culture.
XII- The problem of Civilization, page 31
The destiny of Culture (BECOMING), is the thing BECOME (Civilization); Civilization emerges from Culture. As successors to the Greeks, Rome had no spirit, philosophy, art, only practicality. Every Culture will move this way: a taking down of form that is dead. For the Classical world it occurred the 4th century BC; for the West, 19th century. World cities dominate, the older town cities becoming provinces, money replaces all values.
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XIII- Imperialism the last phase, page 36
Roman imperialism was negative, not the result of energy but the lack of resistance. Empires are symbols of passing, may exist as petrified artifacts for a century or longer. Expansion is the soul of the age & Empire is the extension (perfectly reflected in Rhodes). Historical form is not understood superficially (costume, setting) but its position in the lifecycle of the Culture/Civilization. Our age is not “progress” but a stage, observed in all Culture/Civilizations & we are on a well-defined transition; based on historical precedent the track of the West can be calculated.
XIV- The necessity and range of our basic idea, page 39
Once the above schemata is understood, it is clear who we ARE and who we are NOT. The age of innovative, new great art, music, architecture is over. Only the old forms may be extended. Today we must work on technologies and politics, not art.
XV- Its relation to present day philosophy, page 41
Philosophy asserts permanent truths; this is an illusion; the test of a great thinker is his eye for the problems of his age. Earlier thinkers were public men with ideas that impacted. Today we have academics, without impact or originality.
Philosophy’s last task, page 45
Kant fulfilled system philosophy (Plato/Aristotle); he is followed by practical, irreligious social ethics such as Schopenhauer (Greek Cynics, Stoics, Epicureans); for the Greeks the final philosophers were the Skpetics (who doubted all), for the West this final school will be historic morphology.
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XVI- The origins of this work, page 46
Higher mankind (who have produced a civilization: Chinese, Indian, Egyptian, Classical, Magian, American, & Western) are equated with organisms, the justification for a morphological treatment. Each one has distinct spiritual principles extended in all their work/art forms. The principles are comprehended only from within the Culture; to others (like the West looking at Egypt) they are but symbols. These Culture/Civilization are NOT equivalent in spiritual principles but in patterns of growth. A scientific approach using cause/effect treats it as BECOME. It must be understood as BECOMING. The spiritual is outside science, linked to the idea of destiny (BECOMING), asking why then, why such duration, why in a particular form.