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The Decline of the West, Volume 1

by Oswald Spengler

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Tables

TABLE I. “CONTEMPORARY” SPIRITUAL EPOCHS
INDIANCLASSICALARABIANWESTERN
(from 1500)(from 1100)(from 0.)(from 900)
SPRING.I. BIRTH OF A MYTH OF THE GRAND STYLE, EXPRESSING A NEW GOD-FEELING.
WORLD-FEAR. WORLD-LONGING
(Rural-intuitive. Great creations of the newly-awakened dream-heavy Soul. Super-personal unity and fulness)1500-12001100-8000-300900-1200
Vedic religionHellenic-Italian “Demeter” religion of the peoplePrimitive Christianity (Mandaeans, Marcion, Gnosis, Syncretism (Mithras, Baal)German Catholicism
Edda (Baldr)
Bernard of Clairvaux, Joachim of Floris, Francis of Assisi
HomerGospels. ApocalypsesPopular Epos (Siegfried)
Aryan hero-talesHeracles and Theseus legendsChristian, Mazdaist and pagan legendsWestern legends of the Saints
II. EARLIEST MYSTICAL-METAPHYSICAL SHAPING OF THE NEW WORLD-OUTLOOK
ZENITH OF SCHOLASTICISM
Preserved in oldest parts of the VedasOldest (oral) Orphic, Etruscan disciplineOrigen (d. 254), Plotinus (d. 269), Mani (d. 276), Iamblichus (d. 330)Thomas Aquinas (d. 1274), Duns Scotus (d. 1308), Dante (d. 1321) and Eckhardt (d. 1329)
After-effect; Hesiod, CosmogoniesAvesta, Talmud. Patristic literatureMysticism. Scholasticism
SUMMER.III. REFORMATION: INTERNAL POPULAR OPPOSITION TO THE GREAT SPRINGTIME FORMS
(Ripening consciousness. Earliest urban and critical stirrings)Brahmanas. Oldest parts of Upanishads (10th and 9th Centuries)Orphic movement. Dionysiac religion. “Numa” religion(7th Century)Augustine (d. 430)
Nestorians (about 430)
Monophysites (about 450)
Mazdak (about 500)
Nicolaus Cusanus (d. 1464)
John Hus (d. 1308)
Savonarola, Karlstadt,
Luther, Calvin (d. 1564)
IV. BEGINNING OF A PURELY PHILOSOPHICAL FORM OF THE WORLD-FEELING.
OPPOSITION OF IDEALISTIC AND REALISTIC SYSTEMS
Preserved in UpanishadsThe great Pre-Socratics (6th and 5th Centuries)Byzantine, Jewish, Syrian, Coptic and Persian literature of 6th and 7th CenturiesGalileo, Bacon, Descartes, Bruno, Boehme, Leibniz. 16th and 17th Centuries
V. FORMATION OF A NEW MATHEMATIC CONCEPTION OF NUMBER AS COPY
AND CONTENT OF WORLD-FORM
(lost)Number as magnitude (proportion)The indefinite number (Algebra)Number as Function (analysis)
Geometry. Arithmetic
Pythagoreans (from 540)(development not yet investigated)Descartes, Pascal, Fermat (ca. 1630)
Newton and Leibniz (ca. 1670)
VI. PURITANISM. RATIONALISTIC-MYSTIC IMPOVERISHMENT OF RELIGION
(lost)Pythagorean society (from 540)Mohammed (622)English Puritans (from 1620)
Paulicians and Iconoclasts (from 650)French Jansenists (from 1640) Port Royal
AUTUMN.VII. “ENLIGHTENMENT.” BELIEF IN ALMIGHTINESS OF REASON. CULT OF “NATURE.”
“RATIONAL” RELIGION
(Intelligence of the City. Zenith of strict intellectual creativeness)Sutras; Sankhya; Buddha; later UpanishadsSophists of the 5th CenturyMutazilitesEnglish Rationalists (Locke)
SufismFrench Encyclopaedists (Voltaire) Rousseau
Socrates (d. 399)Nazzam, Alkindi (about 830)
Democritus (d. ca. 360)
VIII. ZENITH OF MATHEMATICAL THOUGHT. ELUCIDATION OF THE FORM-WORLD OF NUMBERS
(lost)Archytas (d. 365)(not investigated)Euler (d. 1763), Lagrange (d. 1813), Laplace (d. 1827)
Plato (d. 346)
(Zero as number)(Conic Sections)(Theory of number.(The Infinitesimal problem)
Spherical Trigonometry)
IX. THE GREAT CONCLUSIVE SYSTEMS
Idealism Yoga, VedantaSchelling
Plato (d. 346)Alfarabi (d. 950)Goethe
Epistemology ValcashikaHegel
Aristotle (d. 322)Avicenna (d. ca. 1000)Kant
Logic NyayaFichte
WINTER.X. MATERIALISTIC WORLD-OUTLOOK. CULT OF SCIENCE, UTILITY AND PROSPERITY
(Dawn of Megalopolitan Civilization. Extinction of spiritual creative force. Life itself becomes problematical. Ethical-practical tendencies of an irreligious and unmetaphysical cosmopolitanism)Sankhya,Cynics, CyrenaicsCommunistic, atheistic, Epicurean sects of Abbassid times. “Brethren of Sincerity”Bentham, Comte, Darwin
TscharvakaLast SophistsSpencer, Stirner, Marx
(Lokoyata)(Pyrrhon)Feuerbach
XI. ETHICAL-SOCIAL IDEALS OF LIFE. EPOCH OF “UNMATHEMATICAL PHILOSOPHY.”
SKEPSIS
Tendencies in Buddha’s timeHellenismMovements in IslamSchopenhauer, Nietzsche
Epicurus (d. 270)
Zeno (d. 265)Socialism, Anarchism
Hebbel, Wagner, Ibsen
XII. INNER COMPLETION OF THE MATHEMATICAL FORM-WORLD. THE CONCLUDING THOUGHT
(lost)Euclid, Apollonius (about 300)Alchwarizmi (800)Gauss (d. 1855)
Ibn Kurra (850)Cauchy (d. 1857)
Archimedes (about 250)Alkarchi, Albiruni (10th Century)Riemann (d. 1866)
XIII. DEGRADATION OF ABSTRACT THINKING INTO PROFESSIONAL LECTURE-ROOM PHILOSOPHY. COMPENDIUM LITERATURE
The “Six Classical Systems”Academy, Peripatos, Stoics, EpicureansSchools of Baghdad and BasraKantians.
“Logicians” and “Psychologists”
XIV. SPREAD OF A FINAL WORLD-SENTIMENT
Indian BuddhismHellenistic-Roman Stoicism from 200Practical fatalism in Islam after 1000Ethical Socialism from 1900

TABLE II. “CONTEMPORARY” CULTURE EPOCHS
EGYPTIANCLASSICALARABIANWESTERN
PRE-CULTURAL PERIOD. CHAOS OF PRIMITIVE EXPRESSION FORMS. MYSTICAL SYMBOLISM AND NAÏVE IMITATION
Thinite PeriodMycenean AgePersian-Seleucid PeriodMerovingian-Carolingian Era
(3400-3000)(1600-1700)(500-0)(500-900)
Late-Egyptian (Minoan)Late-Classical (Hellenistic)
Late-Babylonian (Asia Minor)Late-Indian (Indo-Iranian)
EXCITATION
CULTURE. LIFE-HISTORY OF A STYLE FORMATIVE OF THE ENTIRE INNER-BEING. FORM-LANGUAGE OF DEEPEST SYMBOLIC NECESSITY
I. EARLY PERIODOLD KINGDOMDORICEARLY-ARABIAN FORM-WORLD.GOTHIC
(Ornament and architecture as elementary expression of the young world-feeling.) (The “Primitives”)(2900-2400)(1100-500)(Sassanid, Byzantine, Armenian, Syrian, Sabæan, “Late-Classical” and “Early Christian” (0-500)(900-1500)
1. Birth and Rise. Forms sprung from the Land, unconsciously shaped
Dynasties IV-V.11th to 9th Centuries1st to 3rd Centuries11th to 13th Centuries
(2930-2625)Cult interiors
Basilica, Cupola (Pantheon as Mosque)Romanesque and Early-Gothic vaulted cathedrals
Geometrical Temple styleTimber building
Pyramid templesDoric columnColumn-and-archFlying buttress
Ranked plant-columnsArchitraveStem-tracery filling blanksGlass-painting, Cathedral
Rows of flat-reliefGeometric (Dipylon) styleSarcophagussculpture
Tomb statuesBurial urns
2. Completion of the early form-language. Exhaustion of possibilities. Contradiction
VI Dynasty (2625-2574)8th and 7th Centuries4-5th Centuries14-15th Centuries
Extinction of pyramid-style and epic-idyllic relief styleEnd of archaic Doric-Etruscan styleEnd of Syrian, Persian, and Coptic pictorial artLate Gothic and Renaissance
Floraison of archaic portrait-plastic paintingProto-Corinthian-Early-Attic (mythological) vaseRise of mosaic-picturing and of arabesqueFloraison and waning of fresco and statue. From Giotto (Gothic) to Michelangelo (Baroque). Siena, Nürnberg. The Gothic picture from Van Eyck to Holbein. Counterpoint and oil-painting
II. LATE PERIOD (Formation of a group of arts urban and conscious, in the hands of individuals) (“Great Masters”)MIDDLE KINGDOMIONICLATE-ARABIAN FORM-WORLDBAROQUE
(2150-1800)(650-350)(Persian-Nestorian, Byzantine-Armenian, Islamic-Moorish) (500-800)(1500-1800)
3. Formation of a mature artistry
XIth Dynasty. Delicate and telling artCompletion of the temple-body (Peripteros, stone)Completion of the mosque-interior (Central dome of Hagia Sophia)The pictorial style in architecture from Michelangelo to Bernini (d. 1680)
(Almost no traces left)The Ionic column
Reign of fresco-painting till Polygnotus (460)Zenith of mosaic paintingReign of oil-painting from Titian to Rembrandt (d. 1664)
Rise of free plastic “in the round” (“Apollo of Tenea” to Hageladas)Completion of the carpet-like arabesque style (Machatta)Rise of music from Orlando Lasso to H. Schütz (d. 1671)
4. Perfection of an intellectualized form-language
XIIth Dynasty (2000-1788)Maturity of Athens (480-350)OmmayadsRococo
Pylon-temple, LabyrinthThe Acropolis(7th-8th Century)Musical architecture (“Rococo”)
Character-statuary and historical reliefsReign of Classical plastic from Myron to PhidiasComplete victory of featureless arabesque over architecture alsoReign of classical music from Bach to Mozart
End of strict fresco and ceramic painting (Zeuxis)End of classical oil-painting (Watteau to Goya)
5. Exhaustion of strict creativeness. Dissolution of grand form. End of the Style. “Classicism” and “Romanticism”
Confusion after about 1750The age of Alexander“Haroun-al-Raschid” (about 800)Empire and Biedermeyer
(No remains)The Corinthian column“Moorish Art”Classicist taste in architecture
Lysippus and ApellesBeethoven, Delacroix
CIVILIZATION.EXISTENCE WITHOUT INNER FORM. MEGALOPOLITAN ART AS A COMMONPLACE: LUXURY, SPORT, NERVE-EXCITEMENT: RAPIDLY-CHANGING FASHIONS IN ART (REVIVALS, ARBITRARY DISCOVERIES, BORROWINGS)
1. “Modern Art.” “Art problems.” Attempts to portray or to excite the megalopolitan consciousness. Transformation of Music, architecture and painting into mere craft-arts
Hyksos PeriodHellenismSultan dynasties of 9th-10th Century19th and 20th Centuries
(Preserved only in Crete; Minoan art)Pergamene Art (theatricality)Liszt, Berlioz, Wagner
Hellenistic painting modes (veristic, bizarre, subjective)Prime of Spanish-Sicilian artImpressionism from Constable to Leibl and Manet
Architectural display in the cities of the DiadochiSamarraAmerican architecture
2. End of form-development. Meaningless, empty, artificial, pretentious architecture and ornament. Imitation of archaic and exotic motives
XVIII Dynasty (1580-1350)
Rock temple of Dehr-el-Bahri. Memnon-Colossi. Art of Cnossos and Amarna
Roman Period (100-0-100)
Indiscriminate piling of all three orders. Fora, theatres (Colosseum). Triumphal arches
Seljuks (from 1050)
“Oriental Art” of the Crusade period
From 2000
3. Finale. Formation of a fixed stock of forms. Imperial display by means of material and mass. Provincial craft-art
XIX Dynasty (1350-1205)Trajan to AurelianMongol Period (from 1250)From 2000
Gigantic buildings of Luxor, Karnak and Abydos.Gigantic fora, thermæ, colonnades, triumphal archesGigantic buildings (e.g. in India)
Small-art (beast plastic, textiles, arms)Roman provincial art (ceramic, statuary, arms)Oriental craft-art (rugs,arms, implements)

TABLE III. “CONTEMPORARY” POLITICAL EPOCHS
EGYPTIANCLASSICALCHINESEWESTERN
PRE-CULTURAL PERIOD. PRIMITIVE FOLK. TRIBES AND THEIR CHIEFS. AS YET NO “POLITICS” AND NO “STATE”
Thinite PeriodMycenean AgeShang PeriodFrankish Period
(Menes)(“Agamemnon”)(Charlemagne)
3400-30001600-1100(1700-1300)(500-900)
CULTURE. NATIONAL GROUPS OF DEFINITE STYLE AND PARTICULAR WORLD-FEELING. “NATIONS.” WORKING OF AN IMMANENT STATE-IDEA
I. Early Period. Organic articulation of political existence. The two prime classes (noble and priest).
Feudal economics; purely agrarian values
1. Feudalism. Spirit of countryside and countryman. The “City” only a market or stronghold. Chivalric-religious ideals. Struggles of ideals. Struggles of vassals amongst themselves and against overlordOLD KINGDOM
(2900-2400)
Feudal conditions of IV Dynasty
Increasing power of feudatories and priesthoods
The Pharaoh as incarnation of Ra
DORIC PERIOD
(1100-650)
The Homeric kingship

Rise of the nobility
(Ithaca. Etruria, Sparta)
EARLY CHOU PERIOD
(1300-800)
The central ruler (Wang) pressed hard by the feudal nobility
GOTHIC PERIOD
(900-1500)
Roman-German Imperial period
Crusading nobility
Empire and Papacy
2. Crisis and dissolution of patriarchal forms
From feudalism to aristocratic State
VI Dynasty. Break-up of the Kingdom into heritable principalities. VII and VIII Dynasties, interregnumAristocratic synoecism
Dissolution of kinship into annual offices
Oligarchy
934-904. I-Wang and the vassals

842. Interregnum
Territorial princes
Renaissance towns. Lancaster and York
1254 Interregnum
II. Late Period. Actualizing of the matured State-idea. Town versus countryside. Rise of Third Estate (Bourgeoisie).
Victory of money over landed property
3. Fashioning of a world of States of strict form. FrondesMIDDLE KINGDOM
(2150-1800)
XIth Dynasty. Overthrow of the baronage by the rulers of Thebes.
Centralized bureaucracy-state
IONIC PERIOD
(650-300)
6th Century. First Tyrannis. (Cleisthenes, Periander, Polycrates, the Tarquins.) The City-State.
LATE CHOU PERIOD
(800-500)
Period of the “Protectors” (Ming-Chu 685-591) and the rulers of Thebes. congresses of princes (-460)
BAROQUE PERIOD
(1500-1800)
Dynastic family power, Fronde (Richelieu, Wallenstein, Cromwell) about 1630.
4. Climax of the State-form (“Absolutism”) Unity of town and “Society.” The “three estates”)XIIth Dynasty (2000-1788)
Strictest centralization of power>
Court and finance nobility
The pure Polis (absolutism of the Demos). Agora politics
Rise of the tribunate
Themistocles, Pericles
Chun-Chiu period (“Spring” and “Autumn”), 590-480
Seven powers
Perfection of social forms (Li)
Ancien Régime. Rococo.
Court nobility of Versailles. Cabinet politics
Habsburg and Bourbon.
Louis XIV. Frederick the Great
5. Break-up of the State-form (Revolution and Napoleonism). Victory of the city over the countryside (of the “people” over the privileged, of the intelligentsia over tradition, of money over policy)1788-1680. Revolution and military government. Decay of the realm. Small potentates, in some cases sprung from the people4th Century. Social revolution and Second Tyrannis (Dionysius I, Jason of Pherae, Appius Claudius the Censor)480. Beginning of the Chan-Kwo periodEnd of XVIII Century. Revolution in America and France (Washington, Fox, Mirabeau, Robespierre)
Alexander441. Fall of the Chou dynasty
Revolutions and annihilation-wars
Napoleon
CIVILIZATION. THE BODY OF THE PEOPLE, NOW ESSENTIALLY URBAN IN CONSTITUTION,
DISSOLVES INTO FORMLESS MASS. MEGALOPOLIS AND PROVINCES. THE FOURTH
ESTATE (“MASSES”), INORGANIC, COSMOPOLITAN
1. Domination of Money (“Democracy”) Economic powers permeating the political forms and authorities1680 (1788)-1580. Hyksos period. Deepest decline. Dictatures of alien generals (Chian)300-100. Political Hellenism. From Alexander to Hannibal and Scipio royal all-power; from Cleomenes III and C. Flaminius (220) to C. Marius, radical demagogues480-230. Period of the “Contending States”1800-2000. XIXth Century. From Napoleon to the World-War. “System of the Great Powers,” standing armies, constitutions. XXth-Century transition from constitutional to informal sway of individuals. Annihilation wars. Imperialism
288. The Imperial title
After 1600 definitive victory of the rulers of ThebesThe imperialist statesmen of Tsin
From 289 incorporation of the last states in the Empire
2. Formation of Cæsarism. Victory of force-politics over money. Increasing primitiveness of political forms. Inward decline of the nations into a formless population, and constitution thereof as an Imperium of gradually-increasing crudity of despotism1580-1350. XVIIIth Dynasty100-0-100. Sulla to Domitian
250-0-26. House of Wang-Cheng and Western Han Dynasty
Thuthmosis IIICæsar, Tiberius221. Augustus-title (Shi) of Emperor Hwang-Ti1000-1200
140-80. Wu-ti
3. Maturing of the final form. Private and family policies of individual leaders. The world as spoil. Egypticism, Mandarinism, Byzantinism. History less stiffening and enfeeblement even of the imperial machinery, against young peoples eager for spoil, or alien conquerors. Primitive human conditions slowly thrust up into the highly-civilized mode of living1350-1205. XIXth Dynasty

Sethos I

Rameses II
100-300. Trajan to Aurelian

Trajan, Septimius Severus
25-220 A.D. Eastern Han Dynasty
58-71. Ming-ti
after 1200

The page references in footnote 486 most likely refer to Volume II, since the two pages mentioned contain no pertinent material.

There are a number of index entries which refer to footnotes on a given page while the topics appear in the main text. This would seem to indicate that the preparation of the Index was not reviewed after the final version of the text was complete. These references have been amended to direct the reader to the correct page:

Intercultural Contemporaneity (multiple times) (p. 112), Frescos (p. 225), Tasso (p. 325),

The reference to Saint John and world-history as a note on p. 18 seems incorrect. Footnote 13 on that page refers to the Apostle Paul. The reference is left unlinked.

On p. vi of the Index, a cross-referenced ‘Motherland’ topic is missing.

Minor punctuation lapses in the Index have been corrected without further notice.

Other errors deemed most likely to be the printer’s have been corrected, and are noted here. The references are to the page and line in the original.

xvii.18 Geometry and arith[e]meticRemoved.
8.4lead to a naturalistic[,] ChronologyRemoved.
8.27there is certain[t]ly no world-historyRemoved.
12.29unparallel[l]ed in art-historyRemoved.
25.19all these arbit[r]ary> and narrow schemesInserted.
26.39occurring f[u/o]r usReplaced.
37.20and theor[i/e]ticallyReplaced.
62.42de [s]oudaineté et de certitude absolueAdded.
82.30The Greek m[e/a]thematiciansReplaced.
126.35approached these question[s]Added.
128.18a glad materialization of the sp[i]ritual.Inserted.
129.39κακῶς [ἐί/εἴ]ληφα τ[ὀυ/οὐ]μὸνσῶμα σ[υ/ὺ]ν τέχνῃ κακῇ.Replaced.
129.41μαντεῖα... [ἅ/ἃ] τοῦδ’Replaced.
133.43(παρὰ τοσ[όu/oῦ]τον μ[ε/ὲ]ν [ἥ/ἡ] Μυτιλήνη ἦλθε κινδύνου)Replaced.
134.36“Handbook of Early Christian Antiquities)”[.]Added.
134.43“Handbook of May on Antiquities.[”]Added.
150.41was th[o]roughly English in spiritInserted.
191.22(mitschwingen i[n/m] Lebenstakte)Replaced.
200.16Hagia [S ]Sophia in ConstantinopleRemoved.
212.30Here there was no brill[i]ant instantInserted.
213.42Ency. Brit., XI Ed.[)]Added.
227.28to the harp[is/si]chordTransposed.
269.24absorbed philos[o]pherInserted.
269.38impor[t]ant and significantInserted.
270.34comp[a]re his unbridled dynamismInserted.
271.43Oldach, Wasmann[,] Rayski and many anotherInserted.
277.18he shattere[e]d the canonRemoved.
288.39it is so th[o]roughly irreligiousInserted.
290.31something of Rembrandt’s p[ro/or]traitureTransposed.
299.6Every professed philos[o]pherInserted.
302.27the essen[s/c]e of the soulReplaced.
307.16of our Nature-picture[.]Added.
307.40Ges[s/c]h. d. neueren PhilosophieReplaced.
313.42οὔκουν ἂνεκφύγοι γε τὴν πεπρωμένηνInserted.
318.6ἀνθρώπ[ῶ/ω]ν ἀλλὰ πρ[[α/ά]ξεων καὶ βίου.Replaced.
330.25that would not i[n/m]pugn the primacyReplaced.
333.43quite independently of gunpow[d]erInserted.
355.8oppressive actualiti[t]esRemoved.
360.18sp[i]ritual prostitutionInserted.
363.31what should be dest[r]oyedInserted.
373.30der politischen [O/Ö]konomieReplaced.
400.36Mo[v/r]eover, it is onlyReplaced.
410.2in its attitude to[r]wards tolerationRemoved.
a.iii.20 See Bart[h]olommeoRemoved.
a.v.41 Calculus, and Classical astro[mon/nom]yTransposed.
a.vi.17 ancest[o]ral worshipRemoved.
a.xii.33 Western math[e]matic and termInserted.
a.xiii.47 wi[ds/sd]om and intellectTransposed.
a.xxv.45 intellect and wi[ds/sd]omTransposed.
a.xxviii.38 Tartini, G[ui/iu]seppeTransposed.
a.xxix.42[‘/“]space of time”Replaced.
a.xxxi.11 Weyden, Rogier van der.Removed.
t3.20dis[s]olution ofInserted.

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