World Historian Series: Oswald Spengler 2

Spengler's civilization model

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Oswald Spengler's civilization model appears as three tables, each in a three-page-long folded sheet, inserted between pages 68 and 69 of the first volume of hisDer Untergang des Abendlandes, in the definitive edition published under the author's care by C. H. Beck in Munich, in 1931. Page numbers slightly changed from the previous German editions, yet were always placed immediately after the end of the Introduction. The English translation, published by Alfred A. Knopf in New York in 1936 as The Decline of the West, vol. 1, carries these tables at the end of the volume (after page 444). For their meaning and significance, see themain article.

Spiritual epochs

Phase	Indian from 1500 BC	Classical from 1100 BC	Arabian from 0	Western from 900
Spring Rural-intuitive. Great creations of the newly-awakened dream-heavy soul. Super-personal unity and fulness	Birth of a myth of the grand style expressing a new God-feeling. World-fear and world-longing
	1500–1200 BC §  Vedic Religion §  Aryan hero-tales	1100–800 BC §  Hellenic-Italian "Demeter" religion of the people §  Homer §  Heracles and Theseuslegends	1–300 §  Primitive Christianity(Mandaeans, Marcion,Gnosis) §  Syncretism (Mithras, Baal) §  Gospels §  Apocalypses §  Christian, Mazdaist and pagan legends	900–1200 §  German Catholicism §  Edda (Balder) §  Bernard of Clairvaux,Joachim of Floris, Francis of Assisi §  Popular epos (Siegfried) §  Chivalric epos (Grail) §  Western legends of the Saints
	Earliest mystical-metaphysical shaping of the new world-outlook. Zenith of Scholasticism
	Preserved in the oldest parts of the Vedas	§  Oldest (oral) Orphic §  Etruscan discipline §  After-effect; Hesiod §  Cosmogony	§  Origen (254) §  Plotinus (269) §  Mani (276) §  Iamblichus (330) §  Talmud §  Church Fathers	§  Thomas Aquinas (1274) §  Duns Scotus (1308) §  Dante Alighieri (1321) §  Meister Eckhart (1329) §  Mysticism §  Scholasticism
Summer Ripening consciousness. Earliest urban and critical stirrings	Reformation: internal popular opposition to the great springtime forms
	10–9th century BC §  Brahmana §  Oldest elements of theUpanishad	7th century BC §  Orphic Movement. Dionysiac religion §  Religion of Numa Pompilius	§  Augustine of Hippo (430) §  Nestorianism (ca. 430) §  Monophysitism (ca. 450) §  Mazdak (ca. 500)	§  Nicholas of Cusa (1464) §  Jan Hus (1415) §  Girolamo Savonarola §  Andreas Karlstadt §  Martin Luther §  John Calvin (1564)
	Beginning of a purely philosophical form of the world-feeling. Opposition of idealistic and realistic systems
	Preserved in the Upanishads	6–5th century BC §  The great Pre-Socratics	6–7th century §  Byzantine, Jewish, Syrian, Coptic and Persian literature	16–17th century §  Galileo Galilei §  Francis Bacon §  René Descartes §  Giordano Bruno §  Jakob Böhme §  Gottfried Leibniz
	Formation of a new mathematic conception of number as copy and content of world-form
	Missing	Number as magnitude (measure) §  Geometry, arithmetic §  Pythagoreans (from 540)	The indefinite number (algebra) §  Development not yet investigated	Number as function (analysis) §  Descartes, Pascal, Fermat(ca. 1630) §  Newton, Leibniz (ca. 1670)
	Puritanism. Rationalistic-mystic impoverishment of religion
	Traces in the Upanishads	§  Pythagorean Society (from 540)	§  Mohammed (622) §  Paulicians and Iconoclasts(from 650)	§  English Puritans since 1620 §  French Jansenists since 1640 (Port Royal)
Autumn Intelligence of the City. Zenith of strict intellectual creativeness	"Enlightenment". Belief in the almightiness of reason. Cult of "Nature". "Rational" religion
	Sutras; Sankhya; Buddha; later Upanishads	§  Sophism (5th century BC) §  Socrates (399 BC) §  Democritus (ca. 360 BC)	§  Mutazilite §  Sufism §  Ibrahim al-Nazzam §  Al-Kindi	§  Sensualism §  John Locke §  Encyclopedie §  Voltaire §  Jean Jacques Rousseau
	Zenith of mathematical thought. Elucidation of the form-world of numbers
	Zero as a number	§  Archytas §  Plato §  Eudoxus of Cnidus §  Conic section	§  Number theory §  Spherical trigonometry	§  Leonhard Euler (1783) §  Joseph-Louis Lagrange(1813) §  Pierre-Simon Laplace(1827) §  The Infinitesimal problem
	The great conclusive systems
	Idealism: Yoga, VedantaEpistemology: VaisheshikaLogic: Nyaya	§  Plato (d. 346 BC) §  Aristotle (d. 322 BC)	§  Al-Farabi (d. 950) §  Avicenna (d. ca. 1000)	Goethe, Kant §  Schelling §  Hegel §  Fichte
Winter Dawn of Megalopolitan Civilization. Extinction of spiritual creative force. Life itself becomes problematical. Ethical-practical tendencies of an irreligious and unmetaphysical cosmopolitanism	Materialistic world-outlook. Cult of science, utility and prosperity
	Sankhya, Cārvāka (Lokoyata)	Cynics, Cyrenaics, Last Sophists (Pyrrhon)	§  Communistic, atheistic,Epicurean sects of Abbasidtimes §  Brethren of Sincerity	Bentham, Comte, Darwin,Spencer, Stirner, Marx,Feuerbach
	Ethical-social ideals of life. Epoch of "Unmathematical philosophy". "Skepsis"
	Tendencies in Buddha's time	§  Hellenism §  Epicurus (270 BC) §  Zeno of Citium (265 BC)	Movements in Islam	§  Schopenhauer, Nietzsche §  Socialism, Anarchism §  Hebbel, Wagner, Ibsen
	Inner completion of the mathematical form-world. The concluding thought
	(lost)	§  Euclid, Apollonius (about 300 BC) §  Archimedes (about 250 BC)	§  Al-Khwarizmi (800), ibn Qurra (850) §  Al-Karaji, Al-Biruni (10th century)	§  Gauss (d. 1855), Cauchy (d. 1857) §  Riemann (d. 1866)
	Degradation of abstract thinking into professional lecture-room philosophy. Compendium literature
	§  The "Six Classical Systems"	§  the Academy §  Peripatetics §  Stoicism §  Epicurianism	Schools of Baghdad and Basra	§  Kantianism §  Logic §  Psychology
	Spread of a final world-sentiment
	Indian Buddhism since 500	Hellenistic-Roman Stoicismsince 200	The practical Fatalism in Islam since 1000	The spread of ethical Socialismfrom 1900

[edit]Artistic epochs

Phase		Egyptian	Classical	Arabian	Western
Pre-Cultural Period Chaos of primitive expression forms. Mystical symbolism and naive imitation		§  Thinite Period (3400–3000 BC)	§  Mycenian Age (1600–1100 BC) §  Late-Egyptian (Minoan) §  Late-Babylonian (Asia Minor)	§  Persian-Seleucid Period (500 BC–0) §  Late-Classical (Hellenistic) §  Late-Indian (Indo-Iranian)	§  Merovingian-CarolingianEra (500–900)
Culture Life-history of a style Formative of the entire inner-being. Form-language of deepest symbolic necessity	Early Period Ornamentation and architecture as elementary expression of the young world-feeling: "The Primitives"	OLD KINGDOM (2900–2400 BC)	DORIC (1100–500 BC)	EARLY-ARABIAN FORM-WORLD (Sassanid, Byzantine, Armenian, Syrian, Sabæan, "Late-Classical" and "Early-Christian") (0–500)	GOTHIC (900–1500)
		Birth and Rise. Forms sprung from the Land, unconsciously shaped
		Dynasties IV–V (2930–2625 BC) §  Geometrical Temple style §  Pyramid temples §  Ranked plant-columns §  Rows of flat relief §  Tomb statues	11–9th centuries BC §  Timber building §  Doric column §  Architrave §  Geometric (Dipylon) style §  Burial urns	1st–3rd centuries §  Ritual interiors §  Basilica §  Dome §  Mosque §  Sarcophagus	11–13th centuries §  Romanesque architecture §  Gothic architecture §  Dome §  Stained glass
		Completion of the early form-language. Exhaustion of possibilities. Contradiction
		2320–2200 BC §  6th dynasty §  End of pyramid and epic relief styles §  Bloom of archaic portraits.	8–7th centuries BC §  End of Dorian and Etruscan styles §  Corinth §  Attica §  Greek mythology	4–5th centuries §  End of Persian, Syrian, and Coptic arts §  Mosaic §  Arabesque	14–15th centuries §  Late Gothic andRenaissance §  Bloom and end of Frescoand Statue, from Giotto toMichelangelo §  Baroque §  Siena §  Nuremberg §  Panel painting from Jan van Eyck to Hans Holbein the Younger §  Counterpoint §  Oil painting
	Late Period Formation of a group of arts urban and conscious, in the hands of individuals: "Great Masters."	Formation of a mature artistry
		2130–1990 BC §  11th dynasty §  No trace of lost art	§  Completion of the temple (Peristyle) §  Ionic order §  Polygnotus (460) §  Apollo of Tenea of Ageladas	§  Completion of the mosque (Hagia Sophia) §  Completion of the arabesque style (Mshatta facade)	§  Architectural painting from Michelangelo to Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1680) §  Dominance of oil painting from Titian to Rembrandt(1669) §  Rise of music from Orlande de Lassus to Heinrich Schütz (1672)
		Perfection of an intellectualized form-language
		1990–1790 BC §  12th dynasty §  Use of pylons in temple construction §  Labyrinth	480–350 BC §  Bloom of Athens §  Acropolis §  Rule of classical forms fromMyron to Phidias §  Decline of fresco and clay painting (Zeuxis and Parrhasius)	7–8th centuries §  Umayyad dynasty §  Complete victory of featureless arabesque over architecture also	Rococo §  Musical architecture ("rococo") §  Reign of classical music from Bach to Mozart §  End of classical oil painting from Watteau to Goya
		Exhaustion of strict creativeness. Dissolution of grand form. End of style. "Classicism" and "Romanticism"
		Confusion after about 1750	§  Alexander the Great §  The Corinthian column §  Lysippos §  Apelles	§  Harun al-Raschid (ca. 800) §  Moorish art	§  Classicist taste in architecture §  Second Empire §  Biedermeier §  Neoclassicism §  Ludwig van Beethoven §  Eugène Delacroix
Civilization Existence without inner form. Metropolitan city art as a commonplace: luxury, sport, nerve excitement. Rapidly-changing fashions in art (revivals, arbitrary discoveries, borrowings)		Modern art. "Art problems". Attempts to portray or to excite the metropolitan consciousness. Transformation of music, architecture and painting into mere craft-arts
		Hyksos Period (1675–1550 BC). Preserved only inCrete (Minoan art)	Hellenism §  Pergamene Art (theatrically) §  Hellenistic painting modes (veristic, bizarre, subjective) §  Archetictual display in the cities of the Diadochi	Sultan dynasties of 9th–10th centuries §  Prime of Spanish-Sicilian art §  Samarra	19th and 20th centuries §  Liszt, Berlioz, Wagner §  Impressionism fromConstable to Leibl andManet §  American architecture
		End of form development. Meaningless, empty, artificial, pretentious architecture and ornament. Imitation of archaic and exotic motives
		1550–1328 BC §  18th dynasty §  Rock temples of Deir el-Bahri §  Colossi of Memnon §  Art of Knossos and Amarna	100 BC–100 AD §  Indiscriminate piling of all three orders. Fora, theaters §  Roman Empire §  Roman Forum §  Colosseum §  Triumphal arch	§  Seljuk Turks since 1050 §  "Oriental Art" of the Crusadeperiod	From 2000
		Finale. Formation of a fixed stock of forms. Imperial display by means of material and mass. Provincial craft-art
		1328–1195 BC §  19th dynasty §  Massive constructionsLuxor, Karnak, and Abydos §  Small forms: animal, fabric, weapons	§  From Trajan to Aurelian §  Giant fora §  Thermae §  Triumphal archess §  Roman provincial art: ceramics, statues, weapons	§  Mongol Period from 1250 §  Giant building (e.g. in India) §  "Oriental craft-art" (rugs, arms, implements)

[edit]Political epochs

Phase		Egyptian	Classical	Chinese	Western
Pre-Cultural Period Primitive folk. Tribes and their chiefs. As Yet No "Politics" and no "State"		Thinite Period (MENES) 3100–2600	Mycenaean Age (AGAMEMNON) 1600–1100	Shang Period 1700–1300	Frankish period CHARLEMAGNE 500–900
Culture National groups of definite style and particular world-feeling: "nations." Working of an immanent state-idea	Early Period Organic articulation of political existence. The two prime classes (noble and priest). Feudal economics; purely agrarian values	OLD KINGDOM 2600–2200	DORIC PERIOD 1100–650	EARLY CHOU PERIOD 1300–800	GOTHIC PERIOD 900–1500
		1. Feudalism. Spirit of countryside and countryman. The "City" only a market or stronghold. Chivalric-religious ideals. Struggles of vassals amongst themselves and against overlord
		§  Feudal conditions of IV and V dynasties (2550–2320 BC) §  Increasing power of feudatories and priesthoods. The Pharaoh as incarnation of Ra	§  The Homeric kingship §  Rise of the nobility (Ithaka, Etruria, Sparta)	The central ruler (Wang) pressed hard by the feudal nobility	§  Roman-German imperial period §  Crusading nobility §  Empire and Papacy
		2. Crisis and dissolution of patriarchal forms. From feudalism to aristocratic State
		§  VI dynasty (2320–2200 BC): Breakup 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
	Late Period Actualizing of the matured State-idea. Town versus countryside. Rise of Third Estate (Bourgeoisie). Victory of money over landed property
		MIDDLE KINGDOM 2150–1800	IONIC PERIOD 650–300	LATE CHOU PERIOD 800–500	BAROQUE PERIOD 1500–1800
		3. Fashioning of a world of States of strict form. Frondes
		11th dynasty §  Overthrow of the baronage by the rulers of Thebes §  Centralized bureaucracy-state	6th century §  First Tyrannis (Cleisthenes, Periander, Polycrates, the Tarquins) §  The City-State	Period of the "Protectors" (Ming-Chu 685–591) and the congresses of princes (–460)	Dynastic family-power, and Fronde (Richelieu, Wallenstein, Cromwell)—circa 1630
		4. Climax of the State-form ("Absolutism") Unity of town and country ("State" and "Society." The "three estates")
		1990–1790: 12th dynasty §  Strictest centralization of power §  Court and finance nobility §  Amenemhet, Sesostris	The pure Polis (absolutism of the Demos) §  Agora politics §  Rise of the tribunate §  Themistocles, Pericles	590–480: Chun-Chiu period ("Spring" and "Autumn") §  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 the Second Tyrannis (Dionysus I, Jason of Pherae, Appius Claudius the Censor) Alexander	480: Beginning of the Chan-Kwo period 441: Fall of the Chou dynasty. Revolutions and annihilation-wars	End of XVIII century: Revolution in America and France (Washington, Fox, Mirabeau, Robespierre) 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
		1675–1550: Hyksos period. Deepest decline. Dictatures of alien generals (Chian). After 1600, definitive victory of the rulers of Thebes	300–100: Political Hellenism. From Alexander to Hannibaland Scipio royal all-power; fromCleomenes III and C. Flaminius(220) to C. Marius, radical demagogues	480–230: Period of the "Contending States" §  288: The Imperial title. The Imperialist statesmen ofTsin §  From 289, incorporation of the last states in the Empire	1800–2000 §  19th century: From Napoleon to World War I, "System of Great Powers," standing armies, constitutions §  20th century: Transition from constitutional to informal sway of individuals. Annihilation wars.Imperialism
		2. Formation of Caesarism. 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: Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt §  Thutmose III	100 BC–100 AD: Sulla toDomitian §  Julius Caesar §  Tiberius	250 BC–26 AD: House of Wang-Cheng and Western Han dynasty §  221 BC: Augustus title (Shi) of Emperor (Hwang-ti) §  140–80 BC: Wu-ti	2000–2200
		3. Maturing of the final form. Private and family policies of individual leaders. The world as spoil. Egypticism, Mandarinism, Byzantinism. Historyless 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: Nineteenth dynasty of Egypt §  Sethos I §  Rameses II	100–300: Trajan to Aurelian §  Trajan §  Septimius Severus	25–320: Eastern Han dynasty §  58–71: Emperor Ming of Han	after 2200

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spengler%27s_civilization_model