the decline of the west volume i oswald spengler

The principle of individuation which sparks inventiveness as well as doubt, remained the dominant constitutive factor in Europe and, after the 18th century, also in North America. Yet it was clear by the end of the 15th century that the West had advanced its frontiers to the far shores of the Atlantic and that its inventiveness in the arts, letters, and sciences was unparalleled in the East, where uneasiness was not the prevalent mood and where time-tested customs and modes of thinking were not as readily questioned as they were in the West.

True also that the Islamic crescent displaced the Christian cross in Constantinople in 1453. True, the sun continued to rise in the East and set in the West. Such chiliastic anticipations were gainsaid by actual developments in history. The course of events has gradually been moving westward, until now it has reached the end of the earth and we must face the fact that we are approaching the end of the ages. Paradise, in the East) in order to cause him to understand that, just as the light of heaven moves toward the West, so the human race hastens towards death.Īnother, writing in the 12th century A. God looked in the future and set the first man in that place (i. One religious medieval thinker (4th century A. In this general context few questions have preoccupied Western minds as insistently as those which probe the reasons for the rise and fall, or the progress and decay, of all man-willed ventures on earth, including nations, states, and cultures. Rather, and as we know from the culture’s rich records in philosophy, religion, history, and biography, it has challenged the thoughtful in all generations to explain time’s ineluctable movements, come to terms with time’s boons and ravages, and, above all, to account for man’s proper use of his allotted span of life.

The passage of time has never been taken for granted in the West.

The decline of the west volume i oswald spengler