more from this thinker | more from this text
Full Idea
Spengler relies upon the idea of human cultures as organisms which grow and then inevitably die, having lost their vitality.
Gist of Idea
Human cultures are organisms which grow, and then fade and die
Source
report of Oswald Spengler (The Decline of the West [1918]) by Andrew Bowie - Introduction to German Philosophy 2 'Herder'
Book Ref
Bowie,Andrew: 'Introduction to German Philosophy' [Polity 2003], p.52
A Reaction
He should have thought more about technology. If the 'West' collapses and is replaced by China (say), the new Chinese culture will be barely distinguishable from the West, because they will pursue similar technologies.
| 19780 | We seem to have made individual progress since savagery, but actually the species has decayed [Rousseau] |
| 19839 | The flourishing of arts and letters is too much admired [Rousseau] |
| 14852 | Culture cannot do without passions and vices [Nietzsche] |
| 4495 | The high points of culture and civilization do not coincide [Nietzsche] |
| 20108 | Every culture loses its identity and power if it lacks a major myth [Nietzsche] |
| 20948 | Human cultures are organisms which grow, and then fade and die [Spengler, by Bowie] |
| 23846 | Culture is an instrument for creating an ongoing succession of teachers [Weil] |
| 23414 | Liberals say state intervention in culture restricts people's autonomy [Kymlicka] |
| 9600 | If languages are intertranslatable, and cognition is innate, then cultures are all similar [Williamson] |
| 15662 | The 'culture industry' is an advertisement for the way things are [Finlayson] |
| 20679 | We stabilise societies with dogmas, either of dubious science, or of non-scientific values [Harari] |
| 21432 | Culture is the struggle to agree what is normal [Gibson,A] |