Decline Of The West Essay ⋆ Political Science Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire

A pessimistic book translated into many languages, The Decline of the West was a two-volume essay published by German philosopher Oswald Spengler between 1918 and 1922, though the first chapters (“Form and Actuality,” or “Gestalt und Wirklichkeit”) in the first volume were certainly written around 1906. The second volume, Perspectives of World-History (Welthistorische Perspektiven), was written only after the end of World War I (1914–1918). In The Decline of the West, Spengler argued that Western civilization was entering into a cycle of decay, which was collateral to the decline of the classical culture. Spengler mainly used a comparative method and often referred to other societies, especially ancient Rome, insisting on the importance of economics. Spengler’s formulas can sometimes be seen as an inspiration for postmodern thought; for example, he wrote in his introduction that “There are no eternal truths.” English-speaking readers should be aware that The Decline of the West was published in abridged versions as well. Although less important, Spengler’s following book, Man and Technics: A Contribution to a Philosophy of Life (1932), was shorter and kept a similar pessimism regarding progress.

If he was influenced by Goethe and Friedrich Nietzsche, Spengler himself was a major influence for philosophers like Siegfried Kracauer and expressionist writers like Georg Trakl. Half a century after Spengler, Manfred Fleischer borrowed his famous title and added a question mark for his own book The Decline of the West? (1970).

Today, the expression of a hypothetical “decline of the West” has been reused in various contexts to refer to decadence or the end of an era. During recent decades, more than one hundred books had a title beginning with the expression “The end of. . . .” With a title similar to Spengler’s, the Canadian movie The Decline of the American Empire (1987), directed by Denys Arcand, was a huge success worldwide and was celebrated at the Cannes Film Festival.

Bibliography:

Oswald Spengler. 1918–1924. The Decline of the West. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991.

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