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The period when Spengler published his work (1918 and 1922) was a period of deep pessimism for obvious reasons. At that time, the Baroque era was actually pret

The period when Spengler published his work (1918 and 1922) was a period of deep pessimism for obvious reasons. At that time, the Baroque era was actually pretty close, less than 200 years ago. The medieval era, while atrocious in the aspects you mention, was also the start of the liberation of cities and the beginning of some sort of "somewhat free" commerce. So it does not surprise me that he'd name it the spring. After all, the spring is not an all-pleasant season. What does surprise me is that German romanticism in the 19th century would already fall in the winter period. But I suspect that he blames Marx, the revolutions of 1848 for the decline and ignores the staggering achievements in art, literature, mathematics and physics in that era.

Aperocky 6y ago
To expand, I disagree with the underlying premise of his/similar works. That somehow all culture exist in a perpetual state of competition, and the spread/growth of one necessitate the decline of other. While cultures usually can claim a direct ancestry down the ages, the truth is that the cultures and norms existing today in different part of the world is MUCH closer to each other than say their direct ancestral culture 500 years ago - and it happened because cultures are NOT in a competition, rather it adapts to the new technologies and outside cultural influences. As a result the world is closer together than it ever has, and that's a good thing.
- coldtea 6y ago
  >That somehow all culture exist in a perpetual state of competition, and the spread/growth of one necessitate the decline of other. I don't think that's an opinion to agree or disagree with. Historically it's an observable fact.
  - Aperocky 6y ago
    Historically it's a what? For some reason Japanese have a cultural tradition of eating KFC on Christmas Eve, did they just lose the culture war?
    - coldtea 6y ago
      Yes, twice, once in the time of Commodore Perry, when they were humiliatingly forced to open to western powers. Then, after they powered up, and tried to ensure this doesn't happen again, in 1945, with Hiroshima and Nagasaki and their humiliating surrender and occupation. They turned into western culture as a response, and it took them until the 80s to shake some of this off...
- sheefrex 6y ago
  I'm pretty sure the premise you cite wasn't his view. For Spengler, cultures were attached to a specific location or landscape -- the idea of them spreading doesn't make sense in that context. I also don't recall any discussion of competition. Here's a direct quote: "A Culture is born in the moment when a great soul awakens out of the proto-spirituality ( dem urseelenhaften Zustande ) of ever childish humanity, and detaches itself, a form from the formless, a bounded and mortal thing from the boundless and enduring. It blooms on the soil of an exactly definable landscape, to which plant-wise it remains bound. It dies when this soul has actualized the full sum of its possibilities in the shape of peoples, languages, dogmas, arts, states, sciences, and reverts into the proto-soul." Spengler, Oswald. Decline of the West: Volumes 1 and 2 (Kindle Locations 2294-2297). Kindle Edition.

Aperocky 6y ago

To expand, I disagree with the underlying premise of his/similar works. That somehow all culture exist in a perpetual state of competition, and the spread/growth of one necessitate the decline of other. While cultures usually can claim a direct ancestry down the ages, the truth is that the cultures and norms existing today in different part of the world is MUCH closer to each other than say their direct ancestral culture 500 years ago - and it happened because cultures are NOT in a competition, rather it adapts to the new technologies and outside cultural influences. As a result the world is closer together than it ever has, and that's a good thing.

coldtea 6y ago
>That somehow all culture exist in a perpetual state of competition, and the spread/growth of one necessitate the decline of other. I don't think that's an opinion to agree or disagree with. Historically it's an observable fact.
- Aperocky 6y ago
  Historically it's a what? For some reason Japanese have a cultural tradition of eating KFC on Christmas Eve, did they just lose the culture war?
  - coldtea 6y ago
    Yes, twice, once in the time of Commodore Perry, when they were humiliatingly forced to open to western powers. Then, after they powered up, and tried to ensure this doesn't happen again, in 1945, with Hiroshima and Nagasaki and their humiliating surrender and occupation. They turned into western culture as a response, and it took them until the 80s to shake some of this off...
sheefrex 6y ago
I'm pretty sure the premise you cite wasn't his view. For Spengler, cultures were attached to a specific location or landscape -- the idea of them spreading doesn't make sense in that context. I also don't recall any discussion of competition. Here's a direct quote: "A Culture is born in the moment when a great soul awakens out of the proto-spirituality ( dem urseelenhaften Zustande ) of ever childish humanity, and detaches itself, a form from the formless, a bounded and mortal thing from the boundless and enduring. It blooms on the soil of an exactly definable landscape, to which plant-wise it remains bound. It dies when this soul has actualized the full sum of its possibilities in the shape of peoples, languages, dogmas, arts, states, sciences, and reverts into the proto-soul." Spengler, Oswald. Decline of the West: Volumes 1 and 2 (Kindle Locations 2294-2297). Kindle Edition.