Chapter III: Preface: To the First Edition

The complete manuscript of this book—the outcome of three years’ work— was ready when the Great War broke out. By the spring of 1917 it had been worked over again and—in certain details—supplemented and cleared up, but its appearance in print was still delayed by the conditions then prevailing.

Although a philosophy of history is its scope and subject, it possesses also a certain deeper significance as a commentary on the great epochal moment of which the portents were visible when the leading ideas were being formed.

The title, which had been decided upon in 1912, expresses quite literally the intention of the book, which was to describe, in the light of the decline of the Classical age, one world-historical phase of several centuries upon which we ourselves are now entering.

Events have justified much and refuted nothing. It became clear that these ideas must necessarily be brought forward at just this moment and in Germany, and, more, that the war itself was an element in the premisses from which the new world-picture could be made precise.

For I am convinced that it is not merely a question of writing one out of several possible and merely logically justifiable philosophies, but of writing _the_ philosophy of our time, one that is to some extent a natural philosophy and is dimly presaged by all. This may be said without presumption; for an idea that is historically essential—that does not occur within an epoch but itself makes that epoch—is only in a limited sense the property of him to whose lot it falls to parent it. It belongs to our time as a whole and influences all thinkers, without their knowing it; it is but the accidental, private attitude towards it (without which no philosophy can exist) that—with its faults and its merits—is the destiny and the happiness of the individual.

OSWALD SPENGLER.

_Munich, December, 1917._

CONTENTS OF VOLUME I

TRANSLATOR’S NOTE ix

AUTHOR’S PREFACE TO THE REVISED EDITION xiii

AUTHOR’S PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION xv

CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION 1

Scope of the work, p. 3. Morphology of World-History, a new
philosophy, p. 5. For whom is History? p. 8. Classical and Indian
mankind ahistorical, p. 9. The Egyptian mummy and the burning of
the dead, p. 13. The conventional scheme of World-History
(ancient, mediæval, modern), p. 15. Its origin, p. 18. Its
breakdown, p. 22. Europe not a centre of gravity, p. 23. The only
historical method is Goethe’s, p. 25. Ourselves and the Romans,
p. 26. Nietzsche and Mommsen, p. 28. The problem of Civilization,
p. 31. Imperialism the last phase, p. 36. The necessity and range
of our basic idea, p. 39. Its relation to present-day philosophy,
p. 41. Philosophy’s last task, p. 45. The origin of this work, p.
46.

CHAPTER II. THE MEANING OF NUMBERS 51

Fundamental notions, p. 53. Numbers as the sign of delimitation, p.
56. Every Culture has its own Mathematic, p. 59. Number as
magnitude in the Classical world, p. 64. Aristarchus, p. 68.
Diophantus and Arabian number, p. 71. Number as Function in the
Western Culture, p. 74. World-fear and world-longing, p. 78.
Geometry and arithmetic, p. 81. The Limit idea, p. 86. Visual
limits transcended; symbolical space worlds, p. 86. Final
possibilities, p. 87.

CHAPTER III. THE PROBLEM OF WORLD-HISTORY. (1) PHYSIOGNOMIC AND SYSTEMATIC 91

Copernican methods, p. 93. History and Nature, p. 94. Form and Law,
p. 97. Physiognomic and Systematic, p. 100. Cultures as
organisms, p. 104. Inner form, tempo, duration, p. 108. Homology,
p. 111. What is meant by “contemporary,” p. 112.

CHAPTER IV. THE PROBLEM OF WORLD-HISTORY. (2) THE DESTINY-IDEA AND THE CAUSALITY-PRINCIPLE 115

Logic, organic and inorganic, p. 117. Time and Destiny, p. 119.
Space and Causality, p. 119. The problem of Time, p. 121. Time a
counter-conception to Space, p. 126. The symbols of Time—tragedy,
time reckoning, disposal of the dead, p. 130. Care (sex, the
State, works), p. 136. Destiny and Incident, p. 139. Incident and
Cause, p. 141. Incident and Style of existence, p. 142. Anonymous
and personal epochs, p. 148. Direction into the future and Image
of the Past, p. 152. Is there a Science of History? p. 155. The
new enunciation of the problem, p. 159.

CHAPTER V. MAKROKOSMOS. (1) THE SYMBOLISM OF THE WORLD-PICTURE AND THE PROBLEM OF SPACE 161

The Macrocosm as the sum total of symbols referred to a Soul, p.
163. Space and Death, p. 165. “Alles vergängliche ist nur ein
Gleichnis,” p. 167. The space problem (only Depth is space-
forming), p. 169. Depth as Time, p. 172. The world-idea of a
Culture born out of its prime symbol, p. 174. Classical Body,
Magian Cavern, Western Infinity, p. 174.

CHAPTER VI. MAKROKOSMOS. (2) APOLLINIAN, FAUSTIAN, AND MAGIAN SOUL 181

Prime symbol, architecture, divinities, p. 183. The Egyptian prime
symbol of the path, p. 188. Expression-language of art:
Ornamentation and Imitation, p. 191. Ornament and early
architecture, p. 196. The window, p. 199. The grand style, p.
200. The history of a Style as organism, p. 205. On the history
of the Arabian style, p. 207. Psychology of art-technique, p.
214.

CHAPTER VII. MUSIC AND PLASTIC. (1) THE ARTS OF FORM 217

Music one of the arts of form, p. 219. Classification of the arts
impossible except from the historical standpoint, p. 221. The
choice of particular arts itself an expression-means of the
higher order, p. 222. Apollinian and Faustian art-groups, p. 224.
The stages of Western Music, p. 226. The Renaissance an anti-
Gothic and anti-musical movement, p. 232. Character of the
Baroque, p. 236. The Park, p. 240. Symbolism of colours, p. 245.
Colours of the Near and of the Distance, p. 246. Gold background
and Rembrandt brown, p. 247. Patina, p. 253.

CHAPTER VIII. MUSIC AND PLASTIC. (2) ACT AND PORTRAIT 257

Kinds of human representation, p. 259. Portraiture, Contrition,
Syntax, p. 261. The heads of Classical statuary, p. 264.
Portrayal of children and women, p. 266. Hellenistic portraiture,
p. 269. The Baroque portrait, p. 272. Leonardo, Raphael and
Michelangelo overcome the Renaissance, p. 273. Victory of
Instrumental Music over Oil-Painting, corresponding to the
victory of Statuary over Fresco in the Classical, p. 282.
Impressionism, p. 285. Pergamum and Bayreuth, p. 291. The finale
of Art, p. 293.

CHAPTER IX. SOUL-IMAGE AND LIFE-FEELING. (1) ON THE FORM OF THE SOUL 297

Soul-image as function of World-image, p. 299. Psychology of a
counter-physics, p. 302. Apollinian, Magian and Faustian soul-
image, p. 305. The “Will” in Gothic space, p. 308. The “inner”
mythology, p. 312. Will and Character, p. 314. Classical posture
tragedy and Faustian character tragedy, p. 317. Symbolism of the
drama-image, p. 320. Day and Night Art, p. 324. Popular and
esoteric, p. 326. The astronomical image, p. 329. The
geographical horizon, p. 332.

CHAPTER X. SOUL-IMAGE AND LIFE-FEELING. (2) BUDDHISM, STOICISM, AND SOCIALISM 339

The Faustian morale purely dynamic, p. 341. Every Culture has a
form of morale proper to itself, p. 345. Posture-morale and will-
morale, p. 347. Buddha, Socrates, Rousseau as protagonists of the
dawning Civilizations, p. 351. Tragic and plebeian morale, p.
354. Return to Nature, Irreligion, Nihilism, p. 356. Ethical
Socialism, p. 361. Similarity of structure in the philosophical
history of every Culture, p. 364. The Civilized philosophy of the
West, p. 365.

CHAPTER XI. FAUSTIAN AND APOLLINIAN NATURE-KNOWLEDGE 375

Theory as Myth, p. 377. Every Natural Science depends upon a
preceding Religion, p. 391. Statics, Alchemy, Dynamics as the
theories of three Cultures, p. 382. The Atomic theory, p. 384.
The problem of motion insoluble, p. 388. The style of causal
process and experience, p. 391. The feeling of God and the
knowing of Nature, p. 392. The great Myth, p. 394. Classical,
Magian and Faustian _numina_, p. 397. Atheism, p. 408. Faustian
physics as a dogma of force, p. 411. Limits of its theoretical
(as distinct from its technical) development, p. 417. Self-
destruction of Dynamics, and invasion of historical ideas; theory
dissolves into a system of morphological relationships, p. 420.

INDEX _Following page_ 428

TABLES ILLUSTRATING THE COMPARATIVE _At end of volume_ MORPHOLOGY OF HISTORY

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CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION