[goodlifeodyssey]

It has been a few years since I read some of Spengler's "Decline of the West". As I recall, he believed that history had a certain determinism to it; it had universal laws like the laws of physics. I don't think it does, and I have a hard time understanding how he could have thought this was true. See https://goodlifeodyssey.com/universal-historical-laws for an essay about this, but basically what one dictator ate for lunch can have big effects. Thus, no law could account for such complexity. Its like he took the idea that history repeats itself and over-generalized it.

Spengler also seemed to believe it was impossible to "truly" understand how people from earlier times thought. But then he made some very strong claims, like stating that the ancients didn't have a sense of time. Once again, there is some truth here, but he over-generalizes.

[082349872349872]

Almost 1'000 pages will take me a while, even skimming. At the outset it reminds me a little of A New Kind of Science but with the events of 1914-1918, and their resultant shattering of empires and morals[1], to lend credence to its "copernican" claims to novelty.

    Table of Contents
    I. Introduction
    II. The Meaning of Numbers
    III. The Problem of World-History (1) Physiognomic and Systematic
    IV. The Problem of World-History (2) the Destiny-idea and the Causality-Principle
    V. Makrokosmos (1) The Symbolism of the World-picture and the Problem of Space
    VI. Makrokosmos (2) Appolonian, Faustian, and Magian
    VII. Music and Plastic (1) the Arts of form
    VIII. Music and Plastic (2) Act and Portrait
    IX. Soul-image and Life-feeling (1) On the Form of the Soul
    X. Soul-image and Life-feeling (2) Buddhism, Stoicism, and Socialism
    XI. Faustian and Appolonian Nature-knowledge[2]

[1] Zweig's The World of Yesterday contrasts the Victorian/Edwardian world and the interwar world.

[2] Caveat: the translator may have exoticised perfectly normal words, for instance if Nature-knowledge were Naturwissenschaft, "Faustian and Appolonian science" would have been smoother.

[aebtebeten]

After reading some of his view of physics, with phrases suitable for an art-gallery opening, I'm not spending any more time unless one of you all cares to raise things you think his model got right.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24710096

Kaka ere apapish, kaka ere perepish.