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Oswald Spengler was a German historian and philosopher. He was born on May 29, 1880 in Blankenburg (Harz) in central Germany. He was the eldest of four children, and the only boy. At the age of ten, his family moved to the city of Halle. Here Spengler received a classical education in the areas of Greek, Latin, mathematics, and natural science. He also enjoyed the arts, in particular, poetry, drama, and music.
Two figures whom he greatly admired were Goethe and Nietzsche. At the age of twenty-one, he entered the University of Munich. After a year, he transferred to the University of Berlin and then to Halle. His studies covered many fields, such as classical cultures, mathematics, and physical sciences. In 1904, Spengler received his teaching certificate.
After a few years though, he realized this wasnt the way for him. He left to go his own way, never to return to the teaching profession again. He settled in Munich where he began the writing of his first book. Spengler encountered a few problems before completing his first book.
He had difficulty finding a publisher mostly because of the chaotic conditions at the time (WWI ). Nevertheless he kept at his work. Finally in 1918, the first volume of the Decline of the West, subtitled Form and Actuality appeared on the shelf. With no surprise to Spengler and his publisher his book was an immediate success. Soon, due to its popularity throughout Europe the book was quickly translated into other languages. Because Spengler was not a trained historian, professional historians took great offense to his work.
They were quick to criticize and find errors. In 1922 Spengler issued a revised version of the first book that held minor corrections and new revisions. The next year, the second volume, subtitled Perspectives of World History was put on the shelves. He was satisfied with his work and all other writings were only enlargements on the theme he laid out in Decline. In 1931 he published Man and Technics a book that reflected his fascination with the development and usage, past and future, of the technical. This was a racial book though, but not in a narrow Germanic sense.
It warns the European or white of the pressing danger from the outer colored races. Another piece of work, Fundamental Questions was published in 1965. Spengler did occasionally give lectures, and wrote some essays, only a few of which have survived. The theory that Spengler most agreed with is the cyclical, however he was not narrow minded. He was also an idealist. To prove Spengler was cyclical ist, he based his work on the premise that history is cyclical: civilizations rise and fall, each new one rising to a new level.
This concept, Spengler insisted, is only a product of Western mans ego as if everything in the past pointed to him, existed so that he might exist as a yet more perfected form. He believed that human history is the cyclical record of the rise and fall of unrelated high cultures. These cultures are organic in nature, and like all organisms they must pass through the phases of birth life death. Hence a morphology of history. All previous cultures have passed through these exact stages, and Western Culture will be no exception. Though separate in themselves, all high cultures experience similar developments (Birth Life Death).
Thus to predict the decline and the fall of the west. Spengler put forward an idea, that every high culture has a Prime Symbol The Prime Symbol effects everything in the culture including art, science, technics, and politics. Each cultures symbol expresses itself in this way. Each culture has an art form that is most representative of its own symbol. For example, the prime symbol of Western Culture is the Faustian Soul which symbolizing the upward reaching for nothing less than the infinite.
It is exemplified in the Gothic architecture in Cathedrals, with their vertical lines and their ceilinglessness. Spengler represents both the idealist and cyclical point of view of history. Sadly Spengler died of a heart attack on May 8, 1936, in his Munich apartment. He died convinced that he had been right, and that events were unfolding in belief of what he had written in the Decline of the West. He was sure he lived during the twilight period of his culture, which despite his foreboding and gloomy pronouncements, he loved and cared deeply to the very end.
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Research essay sample on Rise And Fall Western Culture
