Spengler, "The Decline of Europe": a brief summary. Spengler, "The Decline of Europe" by chapters

Oswald Spengler was an outstanding German historian and philosopher, whose expertise and knowledge encompassed mathematics, natural science, the theory of art and music. The main and most important work of Spengler is the two-volume "The Decline of Europe", his other works were not popular outside Germany.

The article below focuses on a bold and ambiguous work on the historical and philosophical themes, which is "The Decline of Europe". Spengler summarized the summary in his foreword. However, on several pages it is impossible to accommodate the entire complex of ideas and terms that are of particular interest to modern history.

Oswald Spengler

Spengler experienced the First World War, which strongly influenced his philosophical views and his formulated theory of the development of cultures and civilizations. The First World War forced to review and partially rewrite the second volume of the main work, which Spengler had already completed at that time, - "The Decline of Europe". The summary of the two-volume book, written by him in the preface to the second edition, shows how large-scale military actions and their consequences influenced the development of Spengler's theory.

The subsequent works of the philosopher focused on politics, in particular on nationalistic and socialist ideals.

After the Nazi National Socialist Party came to power in Germany, the Nazis considered Spengler one of the supporters and propagandists of a radical ideology. However, the subsequent evolution of the party and the militaristic tendencies caused Spengler to doubt the future not only of the Nazis, but also of Germany. In 1933, his book "Time of Decisions" (or "Years of Decisions"), criticizing the ideology of Nazism and the theory of racial superiority, was completely removed from the press.

"The Decline of Europe"

The first independent work of the historian and philosopher Oscar Spengler is the most popular, discussed and influential his work.

Understanding the uniqueness and identity of cultures is one of the main themes of work over which Oswald Spengler has worked for more than five years, the "Decline of Europe". The summary of the two-volume edition and the introduction to the second edition written by the author will help to deal with the difficultly formulated, complex theory of Spengler.

The two-volume treatise touches on many topics and offers an absolute rethinking of how history is perceived in the modern world. According to the basic theory, it is wrong to perceive the development of the whole world from the point of view of the history of Europe, dividing the ages into an ancient, medieval and new era. The Eurocentric scale of historical epochs can not properly describe the appearance and formation of many oriental cultures.

Spengler, "The Decline of Europe". A summary of the chapters. Volume One

Immediately after the publication of the book, the intellectual public of Germany was surprised. One of the most innovative and provocative works, offering an argumentative critical approach to the theory of the development of cultures, formulated by O. Spengler, is "The Decline of Europe". The summary of the theory, which is included in the author's preface, is almost entirely focused on the phenomenon of the perception of history from the point of view of morphology, that is, flow and change.

"The Decline of Europe" consists of two volumes. The first volume is called "Form and Reality" (or "Image and Reality") and consists of six chapters that set forth the foundations of Spengler's theory. The first chapter focuses on mathematics, the perception of numbers and how the notion of boundaries and infinity affects the perception of history and the development of cultures.

"Form and Reality" not only builds the foundation for a critical analysis of contemporary study of history, but also offers a new form of its perception. According to Spengler, ancient culture with its scientific worldview influenced the "naturalization" of history. Thanks to the ancient Greek knowledge of the world with the help of laws and rules, history has turned into a science, with which Spengler strongly disagrees.

The philosopher insists that history should be perceived as "analogous", that is, focus not on what has already been created, but on what is happening and being created. That is why math is assigned such an important role in the work. Spengler believes that with the advent of the concept of boundaries and infinity, a person felt the importance of clear dates and structures.

"The Decline of Europe", a summary of the chapters. Volume two

1. History should be perceived morphologically.
2. European culture has passed from the period of development (Culture) to the age of withering (Civilization).

This is precisely the two main theses, which Oswald Spengler has puzzled his contemporaries. "The Decline of Europe" (introduction, summary of work and critical articles on historical topics called the aforementioned theses "cornerstones" of the theory of Spengler) is a book that turned a lot in the minds of philosophers.

The second volume is called "Prospects for World History" (or "Views on World History"); In which the author explains his theory of the development of various cultures in more detail.

According to the theory of the emergence and development of cultures, which the author formulated, each of them passes its own life cycle, analogous to human life. Each culture has a childhood, youth, maturity and wilting. Each during its existence seeks to fulfill its mission.

High Cultures

Spengler singled out 8 major cultures:

• The Babylonian;
• Egyptian;
• Indian;
• Chinese;
• Middle American (Mayan and Aztec tribes );
• Classical (Greece and Rome);
• Culture of the Magi (Arab and Jewish cultures);
• European culture.

In "The Decline of Europe" the first five cultures are out of focus of the author, Spengler motivates it by the fact that these cultures did not have a direct clash and therefore did not influence the development of European culture, which, obviously, is the main theme of the work.

Spengler pays special attention to classical and Arab cultures, while drawing parallels with the European culture of individualism, reason and desire for power.

Basic ideas and terms

The difficulty of reading "The Decline of Europe" lies in the fact that Spengler not only often used the usual terms in a completely different context, but also created new ones, the meaning of which is practically impossible to explain outside the context of Spengler's historical-philosophical theory.

For example, the philosopher uses the concepts of Culture and Civilization (in the work these and some other terms the author always writes with a capital letter) in contrast to each other. In Spengler's theory, these are not synonyms, but to some extent antonyms. Culture is growth, development, the search for one's Goal and Destiny, while Civilization is a decline, degradation and "survival of the last days". Civilization is what remains of Culture, which enabled the rational beginning to conquer the creative.

Another pair of synonymously contrasting concepts is "what happened" and "what is happening". For Spengler's theory, "becoming" is the cornerstone. According to his main idea, history should focus not on numbers, laws and facts that describe what has already happened, but on morphology, that is, what is happening at the moment.

Pseudomorphism is the term by which Spengler defines underdeveloped or "knocked-down" cultures. The most vivid example of pseudomorphism is the Russian civilization, whose independent development was interrupted and changed by European culture, which was first "imposed" by Peter I. It is this undesirable interference in his culture that Spengler explains the dislike of the Russian people for "outsiders"; As an example of this dislike, the author leads the burning of Moscow during Napoleon's offensive.

The course of history

The main postulate of Spengler regarding history is the absence of absolute and eternal truths. What is important, understood and proven in one culture, can become perfect nonsense in another. This does not mean that the truth is on the side of one of the cultures; Rather, it says that each culture has its own truth.

In addition to the non-chronological approach to the perception of the development of the world, Spengler promoted the idea of the world significance of certain cultures and the absence of a global influence of others. It is for this that the philosopher uses the concept of High Culture; It denotes a culture that has influenced the development of the world.

Culture and Civilization

According to Spengler's theory, High Culture becomes a separate organism and is characterized by maturity and consistency, while "primitive" are characterized by instincts and a desire for basic comfort.

Civilization expands without an element of development, being in fact the "death" of Culture, but the author does not see the logical possibility of the eternal existence of something, therefore, Civilization is the inevitable withering of the culture that has ceased to develop. While the main characteristic of Culture is the formation and development process, the Civilization focuses on the established and already established.

Other important factors for Spengler are the cities-megacities and provinces. Culture grows "out of the earth" and does not aspire to the crowd, every small city, region or province has its own way of life and pace of development, which in the end constitutes a unique historical structure. A vivid example of such growth is Italy in the era of the High Renaissance, where Rome, Florence, Venice and others were distinct cultural centers. Civilization is characterized by the desire for mass and "identity."

Races and peoples

Both of these terms are used by Spengler contextually, and their meanings differ from the usual ones. The race in "The Decline of Europe" is not a biologically-defined distinctive characteristic of a human species, but a conscious choice of a person during the existence of his Culture. So, in the stage of formation and growth of Culture, man himself creates language, art and music, he chooses his partners and place of residence, thereby determining everything that in the modern world is called racial differences. Thus, the cultural concept of race differs from the Civilized.

The concept of "people" Spengler does not connect with statehood, physical and political boundaries and language. In his philosophical theory, the people come from spiritual unity, unification for the sake of a common goal, which does not pursue profit. The decisive factor in the formation of the people is not the statehood and the origin, but the inner sense of unity, the "historical moment of the lived unity".

Feeling of Peace and Fate

The historical structure of the development of each Culture includes the obligatory stages - the definition of the world view, the knowledge of its Destiny and the Purpose and the realization of Destiny. According to Spengler, each Culture perceives the world in different ways and strives for its Goal. The goal is to fulfill your destiny.

Unlike the lot falling into the share of primitive Cultures, the High determine their own path through development and formation. The fate of the European Spengler considers the world spread of individualistic morality, which conceals the desire for power and eternity.

Money and Power

According to Spengler, democracy and freedom are closely related to money, which is the main governing force in free societies and large civilizations. Spengler refuses to call such a development of events negative terms (corruption, degradation, degeneration), because he considers it a natural and necessary ending of democracy, and often of Civilization.

The philosopher asserts that the more money is available to individuals, the more clearly the war for power takes place, almost everything is a weapon - politics, information, freedoms, rights and obligations, the principles of equality, as well as ideology, religion and even charity.

Despite the small popularity in modern philosophy and history, the main child of Spengler makes you think about some of his arguments. The author uses his considerable knowledge in various fields to provide an ideally reasoned support of his ideas.

Regardless of what you need to read - a shortened and edited version of the work "The Decline of Europe", a summary or critical articles about it, the brave and independent approach of the author to changing the world perception of history and culture can not leave readers indifferent.