The Decline of the West

Perspectives of World-History

Oswald Spengler

• Publisher: Arktos Media Ltd
• Year: 2021
• eBook ISBN: 9781914208379
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Philosophy
• Subtopic: World History

In the second and more controversial, albeit optimistic, volume of The Decline of the West, Oswald Spengler deals with the world historical perspectives of his comparative cultural morphology. The periodical calm surrounding the constant and eternally recurring movements, described in the first volume, is over. Spengler develops his theory of "Caesarism" - a tendency towards dictatorship peculiar to mass democracy.

According to Spengler, today we live in the decadent stage of civilization. Previously, the people of culture used money for buying and selling while their main thoughts and occupations lay elsewhere. The people of civilization, however, exclusively think in terms of money and nothing else. That is why our period is also marked by rapacious oligarchs, cunning stock market manipulation, a flourishing art trade and boundless corruption. Only the return of the eternal values of blood and race, through the coming of the Caesars, can destroy the tyranny of the financial mind. Thus Caesarism will bring the victory of strength politics over capital, breaking the pecuniary power and promoting national welfare.

The scene is set for the final battle between the forces of plutocracy and chaos and the political will and order of the Caesars.

Notes

[←1 ]

In what follows I have drawn upon a metaphysical work that I hope shortly to be able to publish.

[←2 ]

For instance, Vol. I, p. 205. — Tr.

[←3 ]

Reference to the poem “Blessed Longing” and the novel Elective Affinities, respectively. — Ed.

[←4 ]

See Vol. I, p. 70. — Tr.

[←5 ]

Even scientific astronomy, when applied to everyday work, states the movements of the heavenly bodies in terms referred to our perception of them. — Tr.

[←6 ]

See Vol. I, p. 228. — Tr.

[←7 ]

A very similar notion of the light-world diffused from the light-centre forms the cardinal point of the philosophy of Robert Grosseteste, Bishop of Lincoln (1175–1273). — Tr.

[←8 ]

The coming of radio broadcasting has in no way altered, but has rather confirmed, the validity of this. The listener either translates his aural impressions into those of the light-world or else yields even more readily than usual to the “illusion” here discussed. — Tr.

[←9 ]

The original reads: “An Stelle des völlig einheitlichen verstehenden Empfindens erscheint oft und öfter ein Verstehen der Bedeutung von kaum noch beachteten Sinneseindrücken.” — Tr.

[←10 ]

Hence we call that which we observe in the faces of men who have not the habit of thought “animal” — admiringly or contemptuously as the case may be.

[←11 ]

Latin: “nature of the thing.” — Ed.

[←12 ]

See Vol. I, p. 166. — Tr.

[←13 ]

See Vol. I, p. 135. — Tr.

[←14 ]

Hence Bayle’s profound observation that the understanding is capable only of discovering errors.

[←15 ]

See Vol. I, p. 124.— Tr.

[←16 ]

See Vol. I, pp. 69, et seq. — Tr.

[←17 ]

Original: “aus dem Erlebnis.” — Tr.

[←18 ]

A.D. 553 (Gibbon, Decline and Fall, ch. xliii). — Tr.

[←19 ]

French: “To the lamp post!” The cry gained a special significance during the French Revolution, during which lamp posts were used for lynchings. — Ed.

[←20 ]

G. Le Bon’s Psychologie des foules (which has been translated into English under the title The Crowd) is the pioneer work on this subject, and, though unduly coloured perhaps by the author’s personal prepossessions, still retains its interest and value. — Tr.

[←21 ]

See Vol. I., pp. 183, et seq. — Tr.

[←22 ]

Meaning here ...

Table of contents

• Translator’s Note
• Origin and Landscape (A)
• Origin and Landscape (B)
• Origin and Landscape (C)
• Cities and Peoples (A)
• Cities and Peoples (B)
• Cities and Peoples (C)
• Problems of the Arabian Culture (A)
• Problems of the Arabian Culture (B)
• Problems of the Arabian Culture (C)
• The State (A)
• The State (B)
• The State (C)
• The Form-World of Economic Life (A)
• The Form-World Of Economic Life (B)
• Other Books Published by Arktos
• Notes