The decline of the West

by Oswald Spengler

TABLES

TABLE I. “CONTEMPORARY” SPIRITUAL EPOCHS
	INDIAN		CLASSICAL	ARABIAN	WESTERN
	(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)	1500-1200		1100-800	0-300	900-1200
	Vedic religion		Hellenic-Italian “Demeter” religion of the people	Primitive Christianity (Mandaeans, Marcion, Gnosis, Syncretism (Mithras, Baal)	German Catholicism Edda (Baldr) Bernard of Clairvaux, Joachim of Floris, Francis of Assisi
			Homer	Gospels. Apocalypses	Popular Epos (Siegfried)
	Aryan hero-tales		Heracles and Theseus legends	Christian, Mazdaist and pagan legends	Western legends of the Saints
	II. EARLIEST MYSTICAL-METAPHYSICAL SHAPING OF THE NEW WORLD-OUTLOOK
	ZENITH OF SCHOLASTICISM
	Preserved in oldest parts of the Vedas		Oldest (oral) Orphic, Etruscan discipline	Origen (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, Cosmogonies	Avesta, Talmud. Patristic literature	Mysticism. 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 Upanishads		The great Pre-Socratics (6th and 5th Centuries)	Byzantine, Jewish, Syrian, Coptic and Persian literature of 6th and 7th Centuries	Galileo, 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 Upanishads		Sophists of the 5th Century	Mutazilites	English Rationalists (Locke)
				Sufism	French 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, Vedanta						Schelling
			Plato (d. 346)	Alfarabi (d. 950)	Goethe
	Epistemology Valcashika						Hegel
			Aristotle (d. 322)	Avicenna (d. ca. 1000)	Kant
	Logic Nyaya						Fichte
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, Cyrenaics	Communistic, atheistic, Epicurean sects of Abbassid times. “Brethren of Sincerity”	Bentham, Comte, Darwin
	Tscharvaka		Last Sophists		Spencer, Stirner, Marx
	(Lokoyata)		(Pyrrhon)		Feuerbach
	XI. ETHICAL-SOCIAL IDEALS OF LIFE. EPOCH OF “UNMATHEMATICAL PHILOSOPHY.”
	SKEPSIS
	Tendencies in Buddha’s time		Hellenism	Movements in Islam	Schopenhauer, 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, Epicureans	Schools of Baghdad and Basra	Kantians.
					“Logicians” and “Psychologists”
	XIV. SPREAD OF A FINAL WORLD-SENTIMENT
	Indian Buddhism		Hellenistic-Roman Stoicism from 200	Practical fatalism in Islam after 1000	Ethical Socialism from 1900

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TABLE II. “CONTEMPORARY” CULTURE EPOCHS
	EGYPTIAN	CLASSICAL	ARABIAN	WESTERN
PRE-CULTURAL PERIOD. CHAOS OF PRIMITIVE EXPRESSION FORMS. MYSTICAL SYMBOLISM AND NAÏVE IMITATION
	Thinite Period	Mycenean Age	Persian-Seleucid Period	Merovingian-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 PERIOD	OLD KINGDOM	DORIC	EARLY-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 Centuries	1st to 3rd Centuries	11th to 13th Centuries
	(2930-2625)		Cult interiors
			Basilica, Cupola (Pantheon as Mosque)	Romanesque and Early-Gothic vaulted cathedrals
	Geometrical Temple style	Timber building
	Pyramid temples	Doric column	Column-and-arch	Flying buttress
	Ranked plant-columns	Architrave	Stem-tracery filling blanks	Glass-painting, Cathedral
	Rows of flat-relief	Geometric (Dipylon) style	Sarcophagus	sculpture
	Tomb statues	Burial urns
2. Completion of the early form-language. Exhaustion of possibilities. Contradiction
	VI Dynasty (2625-2574)	8th and 7th Centuries	4-5th Centuries	14-15th Centuries
	Extinction of pyramid-style and epic-idyllic relief style	End of archaic Doric-Etruscan style	End of Syrian, Persian, and Coptic pictorial art	Late Gothic and Renaissance
	Floraison of archaic portrait-plastic painting	Proto-Corinthian-Early-Attic (mythological) vase	Rise of mosaic-picturing and of arabesque	Floraison 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 KINGDOM	IONIC	LATE-ARABIAN FORM-WORLD	BAROQUE
	(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 art	Completion 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 painting	Reign 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)	Ommayads	Rococo
	Pylon-temple, Labyrinth	The Acropolis	(7th-8th Century)	Musical architecture (“Rococo”)
	Character-statuary and historical reliefs	Reign of Classical plastic from Myron to Phidias	Complete victory of featureless arabesque over architecture also	Reign 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 1750	The age of Alexander	“Haroun-al-Raschid” (about 800)	Empire and Biedermeyer
	(No remains)	The Corinthian column	“Moorish Art”	Classicist taste in architecture
		Lysippus and Apelles		Beethoven, 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 Period	Hellenism	Sultan dynasties of 9th-10th Century	19th 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 art	Impressionism from Constable to Leibl and Manet
		Architectural display in the cities of the Diadochi	Samarra	American 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 Aurelian	Mongol Period (from 1250)	From 2000
	Gigantic buildings of Luxor, Karnak and Abydos.	Gigantic fora, thermæ, colonnades, triumphal arches	Gigantic buildings (e.g. in India)
	Small-art (beast plastic, textiles, arms)	Roman provincial art (ceramic, statuary, arms)	Oriental craft-art (rugs,arms, implements)

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TABLE III. “CONTEMPORARY” POLITICAL EPOCHS
	EGYPTIAN	CLASSICAL	CHINESE		WESTERN
PRE-CULTURAL PERIOD. PRIMITIVE FOLK. TRIBES AND THEIR CHIEFS. AS YET NO “POLITICS” AND NO “STATE”
	Thinite Period	Mycenean Age	Shang Period		Frankish Period
	(Menes)	(“Agamemnon”)			(Charlemagne)
	3400-3000	1600-1100	(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 overlord	OLD 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[dissolution] of patriarchal forms From feudalism to aristocratic State	VI Dynasty. Break-up of the Kingdom into heritable principalities. VII and VIII Dynasties, interregnum	Aristocratic 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. Frondes	MIDDLE 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 people	4th Century. Social revolution and Second Tyrannis (Dionysius I, Jason of Pherae, Appius Claudius the Censor)	480. Beginning of the Chan-Kwo period		End of XVIII Century. Revolution in America and France (Washington, Fox, Mirabeau, Robespierre)
		Alexander	441. 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 authorities	1680 (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 demagogues	480-230. 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 Thebes		The 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 despotism	1580-1350. XVIIIth Dynasty	100-0-100. Sulla to Domitian
			250-0-26. House of Wang-Cheng and Western Han Dynasty
	Thuthmosis III	Cæsar, Tiberius	221. Augustus-title (Shi) of Emperor Hwang-Ti		1000-1200
			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 living	1350-1205. 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

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Transcriber’s Note

The use of an extra ‘S’ in the name of ‘Hagia S Sophia’ on p. [200] is questionable. If it is an abbreviation of ‘Saint’ as it is a line early, it is redundant here given the word ‘Hagia’, meaning the same thing.

On p. [407], footnotes [508] and [509] refer to the same work, Religion und Kultus der Römer. However the citation of the first note is garbled, as Kult. und. Relig. d. Römer.

In the Index, a reference to the effect on natural science of the Relativity Theory was corrupted as ‘19;4’. The proper page is p. [419], and the reference is corrected.

The page reference to a note on Goethe and Materialism should have been to p. [111], not p. 211.

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]metic	Removed.
[8.4]	lead to a naturalistic[,] Chronology	Removed.
[8.27]	there is certain[t]ly no world-history	Removed.
[12.29]	unparallel[l]ed in art-history	Removed.
[25.19]	all these arbit[r]ary> and narrow schemes	Inserted.
[26.39]	occurring f[u/o]r us	Replaced.
[37.20]	and theor[i/e]tically	Replaced.
[62.42]	de oudaineté et de certitude absolue	Added.
[82.30]	The Greek m[e/a]thematicians	Replaced.
[126.35]	approached these question	Added.
[128.18]	a glad materialization of the spritual.	Inserted.
[129.39]	κακῶς [ἐί/εἴ]ληφα τ[ὀυ/οὐ]μὸνσῶμα σ[υ/ὺ]ν τέχνῃ κακῇ.	Replaced.
[129.41]	μαντεῖα ... [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.
[150.41]	was th[o]roughly English in spirit	Inserted.
[191.22]	(mitschwingen i[n/m] Lebenstakte)	Replaced.
[200.16]	Hagia [S ]Sophia in Constantinople	Removed.
[212.30]	Here there was no brillant instant	Inserted.
[213.42]	Ency. Brit., XI Ed.[)]	Added.
[227.28]	to the harp[is/si]chord	Transposed.
[269.24]	absorbed philos[o]pher	Inserted.
[269.38]	impor[t]ant and significant	Inserted.
[270.34]	comp[a]re his unbridled dynamism	Inserted.
[271.43]	Oldach, Wasmann[,] Rayski and many another	Inserted.
[277.18]	he shattere[e]d the canon	Removed.
[288.39]	it is so th[o]roughly irreligious	Inserted.
[290.31]	something of Rembrandt’s p[ro/or]traiture	Transposed.
[299.6]	Every professed philos[o]pher	Inserted.
[302.27]	the essen[s/c]e of the soul	Replaced.
[307.16]	of our Nature-picture[.]	Added.
[307.40]	Ges[s/c]h. d. neueren Philosophie	Replaced.
[313.42]	οὔκουν ἂν[ ]εκφύγοι γε τὴν πεπρωμένην	Inserted.
[318.6]	ἀνθρώπ[ῶ/ω]ν ἀλλὰ πρ[α/ά]ξεων καὶ βίου.	Replaced.
[330.25]	that would not i[n/m]pugn the primacy	Replaced.
[333.43]	quite independently of gunpow[d]er	Inserted.
[355.8]	oppressive actualiti[t]es	Removed.
[360.18]	spritual prostitution	Inserted.
[363.31]	what should be dest[r]oyed	Inserted.
[373.30]	der politischen [O/Ö]konomie	Replaced.
[400.36]	Mo[v/r]eover, it is only	Replaced.
[410.2]	in its attitude to[r]wards toleration	Removed.
[a.iii.20]	See Bart[h]olommeo	Removed.
[a.v.41]	Calculus, and Classical astro[mon/nom]y	Transposed.
[a.vi.17]	ancest[o]ral worship	Removed.
[a.xii.33]	Western math[e]matic and term	Inserted.
[a.xiii.47]	wi[ds/sd]om and intellect	Transposed.
[a.xxv.45]	intellect and wi[ds/sd]om	Transposed.
[a.xxviii.38]	Tartini, G[ui/iu]seppe	Transposed.
[a.xxix.42]	[‘/“]space of time”	Replaced.
[a.xxxi.11]	Wey[ ]den, Rogier van der.	Removed.
[t3.20]	disolution of	Inserted.