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]'s civilization model appears as three tables on a three-page-long folded sheet, placed after the Introduction to his ''Der Untergang des Abendlandes'': ''Gestalt und Wirklichkeit''. The English translation, published by ] in New York in 1926 as ''The Decline of the West: Form and Actuality'', carries these tables at the end of the volume. For their meaning and significance, see the ]. ]'s civilization model appears as three tables on a three-page-long folded sheet, placed after the Introduction to his ''Der Untergang des Abendlandes'': ''Gestalt und Wirklichkeit''. The English translation, published by ] in New York in 1926 as ''The Decline of the West: Form and Actuality'', carries these tables at the end of the volume. For their meaning and significance, see the ].

== Prolegomenon ==
Spengler's tables reflect the inevitable transition from low-] spring (infancy, femininity) to high-synergy winter (old age, masculinity):
<blockquote>
"The difference between children and adults is profound," Fair says. "In a graph depicting the strength of connections between the brain regions we studied, children's minds have just a few connections between some regions, while the adult brains have a web-like mesh of many different interconnecting links involving all the regions."
:— ''ScienceDaily'', 11 March 2008
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
Women have a higher proportion of gray matter to cranial volume than men. Conversely, men have higher proportions of white matter and cerebrospinal fluid to cranial volume than women. Gray matter refers to the neuronal cell bodies and their dendrites, the short protrusions that communicate with immediately neighboring neurons in the brain. White matter refers to the longer axons, sheathed in a white fat called myelin, that reach out from neurons to more distant regions of the brain. Cerebrospinal fluid is the liquid in which the brain floats inside the head. Gray matter is where computation takes place, while white matter is responsible for communication between groups of cells in different areas of the brain.
:— ''ScienceDaily'', 18 May 1999
</blockquote>

]
{| border="1" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" style="margin: 1em 1em 1em 0; background: #f9f9f9; border: 1px #AAA solid; border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 95%"
|- style="background: #E9E9E9"
! Spring, infancy
! Winter, old age
|-
| Maximal potential energy, or, which is the same, minimal realized ]
| Minimal potential energy, or, which is the same, maximal realized synergy
|-
| , <ref>Sheldon, William H. ♦ Harper & Brothers, 1942, p. 47 ♦ ''"V-20. ''Orientation toward Infancy, and toward Family Relationships.'' There is deep love of the period of infancy and of the idea of being a child."''</ref><br>
*Children, women, the Mongoloids<ref name="Mongoloid fatness"> University of Chicago, 1951, p. 900 ♦ ''"Among the Mongoloid majority, obesity is relatively rare, but the bone-fat index (proportion of osseous to adipose tissues) is high"''</ref><ref>Sheldon, William H. ♦ Harper & Brothers, 1942, pp. 255, 256 ♦ ''"As another alternative, it is possible to rationalize a general orientational schema for life on essentially viscerotonic grounds. Buddhism has done so, and Buddha is rarely pictured as less than 5 in the first component, both morphologically and motivationally. In Buddhist doctrines we find a fairly consistent exposition of viscerotonia. We find relaxation, deliberateness, love of comfort, pleasure in digestion, ceremoniousness, tolerance, complacency, love of sleep, orientation toward family, in short, viscerotonia. And for an honest ''rationalization'' of viscerotonia, read Lin Yutang's book, ''The Importance of Living''."''</ref>
| , <ref>Sheldon, William H. ♦ Harper & Brothers, 1942, p. 67 ♦ ''"C-20. ''Orientation toward the Later Periods of Life.'' There is a primary longing for a later period of life, and a persistent conviction that greater happiness lies in the later decades, when the individual will be (he believes) relatively free from the inhibitory tenseness and emotional insecurity which seem so fearfully to thwart him in youth. Also, among academic or intellectually ambitious cerebrotonics there is a strong feeling that the best fulfillments of life lie in the intellectual maturation, and in the richer understanding and insight of later years."''</ref>
*Adults, men, the Jews
|-
| ] apperception, short-range in space and time (a&nbsp;"frog's perspective")
| ] apperception, long-range in space and time (an&nbsp;"eagle's perspective")
|-
| Infantile (feminine, rural, Mongoloid) brain:<br>Predominance of gray matter (the neuronal cell bodies and their dendrites, the short protrusions that communicate with immediately neighbouring neurons in the brain).<br>
In such a brain, immature short-axoned neurons are united locally but alienated globally.<br>
The absence of long axons makes the brain incapable of novel synthesis
| Adult (masculine, urban, Jewish) brain:<br>Predominance of white matter (the ]s that reach out from neurons to more distant regions of the brain; since an axon is insulated with ], it is "]"—alienated from its immediate surroundings).<br>
In such a brain, mature long-axoned neurons are alienated locally but united globally.<br>
The presence of long axons makes the brain capable of novel synthesis:<br>
"Genius is in nothing shown so distinctly as in the power of a mind to leap across great chasms, and join together in some novel synthesis ideas which ordinary minds have never compared. This is a power which cannot be acquired."<ref>Wiseman, Nicholas Patrick ♦ Burns and Oates, 1879, p. 194</ref>
|-
| Flocking instinct and nationalism (people are united locally but alienated globally):<br>
*"Viscerotonic people are extremely agglutinative. They tend to club together and to seek their satisfactions by supporting the group against the variant individual, or against individuality. They are Epimethean, as contrasted with Promethean."<ref>Sheldon, William H. ♦ Harper & Brothers, 1942, p.&nbsp;36</ref><br>
*"Gregariousness is always the refuge of mediocrities, whether they swear by Solovyov or Kant or Marx. Only individuals seek the truth."<ref>Pasternak, Boris ♦ 1957</ref>
| Individualism and cosmopolitanism (people are alienated locally but united globally):<br>
Cerebrotonia is the predominance of ], which is "cosmopolitan"—interconnected encapsulated groups (]) of neurons ("Jewish communities") reside in all organs ("countries") and orchestrate them into a single organism
|-
| Red colour (low-frequency light):<br>
Women like pink; Mongoloid flags (], ], ]) are red; sunrise (the spring of the day) is red
| Blue colour (high-frequency light):<br>
Men like blue; the ] is blue; midnight (the winter of the day) is blue ("No&nbsp;brown after six")
|-
| Since ] are redshifted, their metabolic rate is low:<br>
"V-16. There is a dull, vegetable-like quality, as if the fires of life burned slowly, without concentration of heat. The personality suggests lack of purpose beyond the elementary biological purposes. The relaxed protrusion of the lips (V-1) often brings to mind the picture of infantilism."<ref>Sheldon, William H. ♦ Harper & Brothers, 1942, p.&nbsp;43</ref>
| Since neurons are blueshifted, their metabolic rate is high. An average neuron consumes about ten times more resources than an average cell:<br>
"The brain comprises only 2% of body weight, yet accounts for 18% of resting energy consumption. It receives 15% of cardiac output and uses 20% of total body oxygen and 25% of total body glucose supplies."<ref>Carlson, Karen K. ♦ Saunders/Elsevier, 2009, p. 530</ref>
|-
|}
The redshiftedness of the Mongoloids and the blueshiftedness of the Jews imply that they are the broad ] and narrow ] parts of the same funnel-shaped ]:
<blockquote>
Photons climbing out of a gravitating object become less energetic. This loss of energy is known as a "redshifting", as photons in the visible spectrum would appear more red. Similarly, photons falling into a gravitational field become more energetic and exhibit a blueshifting. ... Note that the magnitude of the redshifting (blueshifting) effect is not a function of the emitted angle or the received angle of the photon—it depends only on how far radially the photon had to climb out of (fall into) the potential well.
:—Nemiroff, R. J. ♦ ''American Journal of Physics'', 61, 619 (1993)
</blockquote>
] is a ] of ]s' ] (energetically favourable) ]. When matter waves spiral down such a gradient, their energy synergetically increases, and they become blueshifted. This increase in free energy is euphoric. Therefore, humanity can be imagined as ], in which the ensembles of matter waves, known as "human beings", spiral down a gradient of synergetic (energetically favourable) urbanization, towards an orgasmic "historyless stiffening", symbolized by the ice-bound ] (in winter, nature is frozen and thus redeemed into a perfect image of eternity—"time shall be no more").]]
Imagine you have two synchronized clocks (two angels) and drop one of the clocks into a ], leaving its twin at the gravity well's rim. The frequencies of the ]s, of which the falling clock consists, will begin to increase, so that the falling clock (the ]) will run ever faster and will travel ever further into the future from its nonfalling twin. Thus, falling into the universe's ] is equivalent to travelling into the future, or, simply, to motion in time, which means that the universe's gravitational potential is eternity:
<blockquote>
We are being sucked into the body of eternity.
:—McKenna, Terence
</blockquote>
Being such blueshifted ]s, men are ] (future-minded, goal-oriented) mentally and ] (], serpentine, ]) corporeally. Humanity's descent into the gravity well of history ] (masculinizes) women, making them more spaghettified, .<ref>Voracek, Martin; Fisher, Maryanne L. ♦ ''British Medical Journal'', 21 December 2002</ref>

An organism, too, has a ] of ]s' ] analogous to a ], where the role of blueshifted ]s is played by neurons, whose ] is manifested in their axons (neurons are the "wise serpents" among cells). The human brain can be simplistically regarded as a single neuron, whose axon is the spinal cord.

]s' mutual ] is their informed state, which is at a negative energy level<ref name = "MCAT"> Kaplan Publishing, 2009, p. 271 ♦ ''"... bound state energy levels are negative ..."''</ref> and exerts suction, so that due to the ] principle, energy surges in the present in order to overcome all barriers and tunnel to a future lower level. The siphon principle is the mechanism by which the more-informed future loans energy to the less-informed present. The universe begins in a state of zero energy, then borrows some energy from the future and begins an exponentially accelerating cascade of transitions to ever lower energy states, each time radiating the borrowed energy into the past and borrowing a bigger amount of energy from the future. Therefore, from the physical point of view, the universe is a ].

A financial debt is essentially a potential difference (a ]) in a dielectric medium between the ''status quo'' and a more informed future state—the only way by which an indebted system can repay the original amount of a debt plus the interest is by becoming more informed, more ]. That is why the beginning of the roughly coincides with 14&nbsp;February 1946—the day of the unveiling of the first electronic general-purpose computer (]), regarded as the birth of the Information Age.<ref> ''Popular Science'', March 1996</ref><ref> ENIAC Museum</ref> In November 1990, the debt voltage reached a critically high level, which initiated the final stage of the dielectric medium's pre-breakdown ]—the emergence of the ]. The progress of the electrical treeing is indicated by the concomitant release of positive energy (], ], heat of crystallization), measured as the growth in the nominal GDP per dollar of new debt. , at which moment the world will undergo an ]—an instantaneous tunnelling to a more negative energy state, to a ''qualitatively'' deeper level of informedness and ] compared with the ''status quo''.

Eventually, the material world will be ] (]) into eternity, which is a ] of ''free'' (], aesthetic) information:<ref>Battersby, Stephen ♦ ''New Scientist'', 15 April 2004</ref>
<blockquote>
Bound information is always connected with a definite material structure, free information is abstract/symbolic. Free information is to a high degree independent from the carrier. <...><br>
Free information is connected with meaning and with goals (''Zweck''). <...><br>
In course of evolution several phase transitions from bound to free information are observed.
:—Ebeling, Werner ♦ in Hofkirchner, Wolfgang (ed.) ♦ The Quest for a Unified Theory of Information ♦ Gordon and Breach, 1999, p. 262
</blockquote>
Being ], free information can only be conveyed by analogies,<ref>Driesen, Cynthia vanden ♦ Patrick White and the "Unprocessed Factor": The Challenge Before the Contemporary Religious Novelist ♦ in R. Shepherd and K. Singh (eds.) ♦ Patrick White: A Critical Symposium ♦ Adelaide Centre for Research in the New Literatures in English, 1978 ♦ ''"Transcendental truths can only be conveyed by analogies from the sensory world."''</ref> which Oswald Spengler appears to have succeeded in doing.


== Spiritual epochs == == Spiritual epochs ==
Line 303: Line 222:
| valign="top" | The practical ] in Islam since 1000 | valign="top" | The practical ] in Islam since 1000
| valign="top" | The spread of ethical ] from 1900 | valign="top" | The spread of ethical ] from 1900
|}

===Corrections===
{| border="1" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" style="margin: 1em 1em 1em 0; background: #f9f9f9; border: 1px #AAA solid; border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 95%"
|- style="background: #E9E9E9"
! German original
! Alfred A. Knopf's 1926 edition
! Current version
! Comment
|-
| Landschaftlich-intuitiv.
| Rural-intuitive.
| Landscapely intuitive.
| Cf. the 1923 ''Landschaftlich-physiognomisch'' (''Landscapely Physiognomic'') gouache painting by Paul Klee
|-
| Überpersönliche Einheit
| Super-personal unity
| Suprapersonal unity
| "Super-personal" can be misinterpreted as "extremely personal"
|-
| Höhepunkt strenggeistiger Gestaltungskraft
| Zenith of strict intellectual creativeness
| Zenith of rigorous conceptualization
|
|-
| Abklärung der Formenwelt der Zahlen
| Elucidation of the form-world of numbers
| Elucidation of the world of numerical concepts
| Spengler uses ''Form'' as a synonym of ''Gestalt'' ("concept")
|-
| Epoche der "Philosophie ohne Mathematik".
| Epoch of "unmathematical philosophy".
| Epoch of "nonmathematical philosophy".
| ''Ohne'' means "without", "non-", whereas the prefix "un-" means "not; contrary to; opposite of".
|-
| Anbruch der weltstädtischen Zivilisation.
| Dawn of Megalopolitan Civilization.
| Onset of cosmopolitan civilization.
| ''Anbruch'' means "onset". "Dawn" is applicable to the Spring and Autumn phases, but not to the Winter phase, which is the midnight of the solar year. ''Weltstadt'' is "cosmopolis". Not every megalopolis is a cosmopolis
|-
| Erlöschen der seelischen Gestaltungskraft.
| Extinction of spiritual creative force.
| End of crystallization of emotions into concepts.
| Concepts are crystallized emotions:<br>"What is named, comprehended, measured is ''ipso facto'' overpowered, made inert and taboo."<ref>Spengler, Oswald ♦ v. 1, Alfred A. Knopf, 1926, p. 123</ref><br>
An emotion is a potential difference<ref> v. 86, 1918, p. 132 ♦ ''"Worry is almost always associated with emotion of some sort. Emotion is potential energy. It is steam which must find an outlet."''</ref>—a ]—in a dielectric medium, causing the latter's exponentially accelerating pre-breakdown ], resulting in an ]—the instantaneous formation of a dendritically hierarchic concept (an ]), which is conductive and, due to that, emotionless (a potential difference can exist in a dielectric only)
|-
| Ethisch-praktische Tendenzen eines irreligiösen and unmetaphysischen Weltstädtertums
| Ethical-practical tendencies of an irreligious and unmetaphysical cosmopolitanism
| Ethical-practical tendencies of a realized cosmopolitanism
| This section includes "The practical ] in Islam since 1000". Therefore, rather than being "irreligious and unmetaphysical", the cosmopolitanism of the Winter phase is realized in the physical world, and, due to that, is no longer just ''abstract'' (religious and metaphysical), but is also ''practical''.<br>
Moreover, the main attribute of the World Spirit is omnipresence, ], cosmopolitanism. That is why "cosmopolitanism" is essentially a synonym of "monotheism" and cannot be "irreligious and unmetaphysical". ''E.g.'', the professedly materialistic and irreligious ] tacitly assumes the existence of immaterial and omnipresent laws of nature, equivalent to the monotheistic ] or World Spirit
|-
| Materialistische Weltanschauung: Kultus der Wissenschaft, des Nutzens, des Glückes
| Materialistic world-outlook. Cult of science, utility and prosperity
| Crystallized world-view. Cult of ] understanding and emotionlessness
| Included in this section are ], ], ] and ]. In such a context, ''materialistische'' cannot be translated as "materialistic". During the Winter phase, water (emotions) is frozen into ice crystals (concepts).<br>While the "mathematical thought" of the table's Autumn section is concerned with ''scientific knowledge'', the "nonmathematical philosophy" of the Winter section is concerned with ''] understanding''. Therefore, ''Wissenschaft'' should be translated as "holistic understanding".<br>Since a holistic understanding of utility is based on the ultimate goal, ''Kultus des Nutzens'' should be interpreted as "goal-orientedness".<br>Listed in this section are the ], the ], the ], the ] and the ], who understand the ultimate goal as ]—emotionlessness.
Also included in this section is ] (whose core idea, according to Spengler, consists in socializing all the individual "human particles" of the planet into a "]"—a world-wide "], within which the socialists will subjectively feel free because they define freedom as understood necessity), which too construes happiness as emotionlessness:<br>
<small>Lo! I show you THE LAST MAN.<br>
“What is love? What is creation? What is longing? What is a star?”—so asketh the last man and blinketh.
The earth hath then become small, and on it there hoppeth the last man who maketh everything small. His species is ineradicable like that of the ground-flea; the last man liveth longest.<br>
“We have discovered happiness”—say the last men, and blink thereby.<br>
They have left the regions where it is hard to live; for they need warmth. One still loveth one’s neighbour and rubbeth against him; for one needeth warmth.<br>
Turning ill and being distrustful, they consider sinful: they walk warily. He is a fool who still stumbleth over stones or men!<br>
A little poison now and then: that maketh pleasant dreams. And much poison at last for a pleasant death.
One still worketh, for work is a pastime. But one is careful lest the pastime should hurt one.
One no longer becometh poor or rich; both are too burdensome. Who still wanteth to rule? Who still wanteth to obey? Both are too burdensome.<br>
No shepherd, and one herd! Every one wanteth the same; every one is equal: he who hath other sentiments goeth voluntarily into the madhouse.<br>
“Formerly all the world was insane,”—say the subtlest of them, and blink thereby.<br>
They are clever and know all that hath happened: so there is no end to their raillery. People still fall out, but are soon reconciled—otherwise it spoileth their stomachs.<br>
They have their little pleasures for the day, and their little pleasures for the night, but they have a regard for health.<br>
“We have discovered happiness,”—say the last men, and blink thereby.—<br>
—Nietzsche, Friedrich ♦ Thus Spake Zarathustra</small><br>
It should be noted that Nietzche had obviously failed to understand that the emotionlessness of the tight-lipped cerebrotonic "last men" is only ''outward''.<ref name="cerebremot">Sheldon, William H. ♦ Harper & Brothers, 1942, p. 82 ♦ ''"Yet it should be remembered that the C-12 trait does not indicate ''lack'' of emotion. Cerebrotonic people are often highly emotional. The phenomenon of emotionality as ''such'' seems to be a variable nearly independent of what we have called the primary components of temperament. Differences lie in the manner of expressing emotion, and perhaps also in the kind or quality of emotion. Since this last variable refers really to a quality of consciousness itself, we have no way of comparing it in different individuals, except by inference drawn from outward behavior. Cerebrotonic people seem to feel emotion more intensely, or more acutely, than do either viscerotonic or somatotonic people. Their sensory responses in general seem to be sharper and more discriminative. If this is actually the case, then in one sense they have more emotion, or are more emotional."''</ref> It is the emotionlessness of a poker player—as Sheldon noted about the cerebrotonics, "Such people have a genius for being 'misunderstood'."<ref>Sheldon, William H. ♦ Harper & Brothers, 1942, p. 82</ref>
|-
| Innere Vollendung der mathematischen Formenwelt.
| Inner completion of the mathematical form-world.
| Inner completion of the world of mathematical concepts.
|
|-
|} |}


Revision as of 18:11, 30 August 2013

Oswald Spengler's civilization model appears as three tables on a three-page-long folded sheet, placed after the Introduction to his Der Untergang des Abendlandes: Gestalt und Wirklichkeit. The English translation, published by Alfred A. Knopf in New York in 1926 as The Decline of the West: Form and Actuality, carries these tables at the end of the volume. For their meaning and significance, see the main article.

Spiritual epochs

Phase Indian
from 1500 BC 		Classical
from 1100 BC 		Arabian
from 0 		Western
from 900
Spring
Landscapely intuitive. Great creations of the newly awakened dream-heavy soul. Suprapersonal unity and fullness 		Birth of a myth of the grand style expressing a new God-feeling. World-fear and world-longing
1500–1200 BC 1100–800 BC 1–300 900–1200
Earliest mystical-metaphysical shaping of the new world-outlook. Zenith of Scholasticism
Preserved in the oldest parts of the Vedas
Summer
Ripening consciousness. Earliest urban and critical stirrings 		Reformation: internal popular opposition to the great springtime forms
10th–9th century BC 7th century BC
Beginning of a purely philosophical form of the world-feeling. Opposition of idealistic and realistic systems
Preserved in the Upanishads 6th–5th century BC 6–7th century
  • Byzantine, Jewish, Syrian, Coptic and Persian literature
 16–17th century
Formation of a new mathematic conception of number as copy and content of world-form
Missing

Number as magnitude (measure)

The indefinite number (algebra)

  • Development not yet investigated

Number as function (analysis)

Puritanism. Rationalistic-mystic impoverishment of religion
Traces in the Upanishads
Autumn
Intelligence of the city. Zenith of rigorous conceptualization 		"Enlightenment". Belief in the almightiness of reason. Cult of "Nature". "Rational" religion

Sutras; Sankhya; Buddha; later Upanishads

Zenith of mathematical thought. Elucidation of the world of numerical concepts
Zero as a number
The great conclusive systems

Idealism: Yoga, Vedanta Epistemology: Vaisheshika Logic: Nyaya

Goethe, Kant

Winter
Onset of cosmopolitan civilization. End of crystallization of emotions into concepts. Life itself becomes problematical. Ethical-practical tendencies of a realized cosmopolitanism 		Crystallized world-view. Cult of holistic understanding and emotionlessness

Sankhya, Cārvāka (Lokoyata)

Cynics, Cyrenaics, last Sophists (Pyrrhon)

Bentham, Comte, Darwin, Spencer, Stirner, Marx, Feuerbach

Ethical-social ideals of life. Epoch of "nonmathematical philosophy". "Skepsis"
Tendencies in Buddha's time Movements in Islam
Inner completion of the world of mathematical concepts. The concluding thought
(lost)
Degradation of abstract thinking into professional lecture-room philosophy. Compendium literature
Schools of Baghdad and Basra
Spread of a final world-sentiment
Indian Buddhism since 500 Hellenistic-Roman Stoicism since 200 The practical fatalism in Islam since 1000 The spread of ethical socialism from 1900

Artistic epochs

Phase Egyptian Classical Arabian Western
Precultural period
Chaos of primitive expression forms. Mystical symbolism and naive imitation
Culture
Life history of a style formative of the entire outer being. Form-language of deepest symbolic necessity 		Early period
Ornamentation and architecture as elementary expression of the young world-feeling (the "primitives")

OLD KINGDOM (2900–2400 BC)

DORIC (1100–500 BC)

EARLY ARABIAN FORM-WORLD (Sassanid, Byzantine, Armenian, Syrian, Sabæan, "late classical" and "early Christian") (0–500)

GOTHIC (900–1500)

Birth and rise. Forms sprung from the land, unconsciously shaped

Dynasties IV–V (2930–2625 BC)

  • Geometrical temple style
  • Pyramid temples
  • Ranked plant-columns
  • Rows of flat relief
  • Tomb statues
 11th–9th centuries BC 1st–3rd centuries 11–13th centuries
Completion of the early form-language. Exhaustion of possibilities. Contradiction
2320–2200 BC
  • 6th dynasty
  • End of pyramid and epic relief styles
  • Bloom of archaic portraits.
 8th–7th centuries BC 4th–5th centuries 14–15th centuries
Late period
Formation of a group of urbanely exquisite arts in the hands of individuals (the "great masters") 		Formation of a mature artistry
2130–1990 BC
Perfection of an intellectualized form-language
1990–1790 BC 480–350 BC 7–8th centuries
  • Umayyad dynasty
  • Complete victory of featureless arabesque over architecture also

Rococo

  • Musical architecture ("rococo")
  • Reign of classical music from Bach to Mozart
  • End of classical oil painting from Watteau to Goya
Exhaustion of strict creativeness. Dissolution of grand form. End of style. "Classicism and romanticism"
Confusion after about 1750
Civilization
Existence without inner form. Cosmopolitan art as a habit, luxury, sport, thrill. Rapidly changing fashions in art (revivals, arbitrary inventions, borrowings) 		Modern art. "Art problems". Attempts to portray or to excite the metropolitan consciousness. Transformation of music, architecture and painting into mere craft arts
Hyksos period (1675–1550 BC). Preserved only in Crete (Minoan art) Hellenism
  • Pergamene art (theatricality)
  • Hellenistic painting modes (veristic, bizarre, subjective)
  • Archetictual display in the cities of the Diadochi
 Sultan dynasties of 9th–10th centuries
  • Prime of Spanish-Sicilian art
  • Samarra
 19th and 20th centuries
End of form development. Meaningless, empty, artificial, pretentious architecture and ornament. Imitation of archaic and exotic motives
18th dynasty (1550–1328 BC) Roman period (100 BC–100 AD) Seljuks (since 1050)
  • "Oriental art" of the crusade period
 From 2000
Finale. Formation of a fixed stock of forms. Imperial display by means of material and mass. Provincial craft art
19th dynasty (1328–1195 BC)
  • Gigantic buildings of Luxor, Karnak, and Abydos
  • Small art (animal sculpture, textiles, arms)
 Trajan to Aurelian Mongol period (from 1250)
  • Gigantic buildings (e.g. in India)
  • Oriental craft art (rugs, arms, implements)

Corrections

German original Alfred A. Knopf's 1926 edition Current version Comment
Lebensgeschichte eines das gesamte äußere Sein formenden Stils. Life-history of a style formative of the entire inner-being. Life history of a style formative of the entire outer being. Äußer is "outer", not "inner"
Bildung einer Gruppe städtisch-bewußter, gewählter, von Einzelnen getragener Künste: "Die großen Meister" (Formation of a group of arts urban and conscious, in the hands of individuals) ("Great Masters") Formation of a group of urbanely exquisite arts in the hands of individuals (the "great masters") Städtisch-bewußt means "urbane", not "urban and conscious". Gewählt means "exquisite"
Weltstadtkunst als Gewohnheit, Luxus, Sport, Nervenreiz. Megalopolitan art as a common-place: luxury, sport, nerve excitement: Cosmopolitan art as a habit, luxury, sport, thrill. Weltstadt is "cosmopolis". Not every megalopolis is a cosmopolis
willkürliche Erfindungen arbitrary discoveries arbitrary inventions
Tierplastik beast plastic animal sculpture The Egyptian plastic art includes relief sculptures of birds and arthropods. Therefore, in this instance, Tier means "animal", not "beast": Der Vogel ist ein Tier

Political epochs

Phase Egyptian Classical Chinese Western
Precultural period
Primitive folk. Tribes and their chiefs. As yet no "politics" and no "state" 		Thinite period (MENES) 3100–2600 Mycenaean age
("AGAMEMNON") 1600–1100 		Shang period 1700–1300 Frankish period
CHARLEMAGNE 500–900
Culture
National groups of definite style and particular world-feeling ("nations"). Working of an immanent state-idea 		Early period
Organic differentiation of political existence. The first two estates—nobility and priesthood.
Feudal natural economy 		OLD KINGDOM 2600–2200 DORIC PERIOD 1100–650 EARLY CHOU PERIOD 1300–800 GOTHIC PERIOD 900–1500
1. Feudalism. Spirit of countryside and countryman. The "city" only a market or stronghold. Chivalric-religious ideals. Struggles of vassals amongst themselves and against overlord
  • Feudal conditions of IV and V dynasties (2550–2320 BC)
  • Increasing power of feudatories and priesthoods. The pharaoh as incarnation of Ra
 The central ruler (Wang) pressed hard by the feudal nobility
  • Roman-German imperial period
  • Crusading nobility
  • Empire and papacy
2. Crisis and dissolution of patriarchal forms. From feudalism to aristocratic state
  • VI dynasty (2320–2200 BC): Breakup of the kingdom into heritable principalities.
  • VII and VIII dynasties: Interregnum
  • Aristocratic synoecism
  • Dissolution of kingship into annual offices
  • Oligarchy
 934–904: I-Wang and the vassals
  • 842: Interregnum
  • Territorial princes
  • Renaissance towns. Lancaster and York
  • 1254: Interregnum
Late period
Actualization of the matured state-idea. Town versus countryside: emergence of the Third Estate (bourgeoisie). Victory of money over barter
MIDDLE KINGDOM 2150–1800 IONIC PERIOD 650–300 LATE CHOU PERIOD 800–500 BAROQUE PERIOD 1500–1800
3. Fashioning of a world of states of strict form. Frondes
11th dynasty
  • Overthrow of the baronage by the rulers of Thebes
  • Centralized bureaucracy-state
 6th century
  • The first tyrannis (Cleisthenes, Periander, Polycrates, the Tarquins)
  • The city-state
 Period of the "Protectors" (Ming-Chu 685–591) and the congresses of princes (–460) Dynastic family-power, and Fronde (Richelieu, Wallenstein, Cromwell)—ca. 1630
4. Climax of the state-form ("absolutism"). Unity of town and country ("state" and "society", the "three estates")
1990–1790: 12th dynasty The pure polis (absolutism of the demos) 590–480: Chun-Chiu period ("Spring and Autumn")
  • Seven powers
  • Perfection of social forms (Li)
 Ancien Régime. Rococo. Court nobility of Versailles. Cabinet politics. Habsburg and Bourbon. Louis XIV, Frederick the Great
5. Break-up of the state-form (revolution and Napoleonism). Victory of the city over the countryside (of the "people" over the privileged, of the intelligentsia over tradition, of money over politics)
1788–1680: Revolution and military government. Decay of the realm. Small potentates, in some cases sprung from the people 4th century: Social revolution and the second tyrannis (Dionysus I, Jason of Pherae, Appius Claudius the Censor)

Alexander

480: Beginning of the Chan-Kwo period

441: Fall of the Chou dynasty. Revolutions and annihilation-wars

End of the 18th century: Revolution in America and France (Washington, Fox, Mirabeau, Robespierre)

Napoleon

Civilization
The body of the people, now essentially urban in constitution, dissolves into a formless mass. Cosmopolis and provinces. The Fourth Estate (the "masses")—inorganic, cosmopolitan 		1. Domination of money ("democracy"). Economic powers permeating the political forms and authorities
1675–1550: Hyksos period. Deepest decline. Dictatures of alien generals (Chian). After 1600, definitive victory of the rulers of Thebes 300–100: Political Hellenism. From Alexander to Hannibal and Scipio, royal all-power; from Cleomenes III and C. Flaminius (220) to C. Marius, radical demagogues 480–230: Period of the "contending states"
  • 288: The imperial title. The imperialist statesmen of Tsin
  • From 289, incorporation of the last states into the empire
 1800–2000
  • 19th century: From Napoleon to World War I. "System of great powers", standing armies, constitutions
  • 20th century: Transition from constitutional to informal sway of individuals. Annihilation wars. Imperialism
2. Formation of Caesarism. Victory of force-politics over money. Increasing primitiveness of political forms. Inward decline of the nations into a formless population, and constitution thereof as an imperium of gradually increasing crudity of despotism
1580–1350: Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt 100 BC–100 AD: Sulla to Domitian 250 BC–26 AD: House of Wang-Cheng and Western Han dynasty
  • 221 BC: Augustus title (Shi) of emperor (Hwang-ti)
  • 140–80 BC: Wu-ti
 2000–2200
3. Maturing of the final form. Private and family policies of individual leaders. The world as spoil. Egypticism, mandarinism, Byzantinism. Historyless stiffening and enfeeblement even of the imperial machinery, against young peoples eager for spoil, or alien conquerors. Primitive human conditions slowly thrust up into the highly civilized mode of living
1350–1205: Nineteenth dynasty of Egypt 100–300: Trajan to Aurelian 25–320: Eastern Han dynasty after 2200

Corrections

German original Alfred A. Knopf's 1926 edition Current version Comment
Organische Gliederung des politischen Daseins. Organic articulation of political existence. Organic differentiation of political existence. "Articulation" means "jointing together", whereas Gliederung means "separation into parts", "differentiation"
Die beiden frühen Stande: Adel und Priestertum. The two prime classes (noble and priest). The first two estates—nobility and priesthood.
Feudalwirtschaft der reinen Bodenwerte Feudal economics; purely agrarian values Feudal natural economy Wirtschaft is "economy", not "economics"
Auflösung des Königtums in Jahresämter Dissolution of kinship into annual offices Dissolution of kingship into annual offices
Die Stadt gegen das Land: Entstehung des Dritten Standes . Town versus countryside. Rise of Third Estate (Bourgeoisie). Town versus countryside: emergence of the Third Estate (bourgeoisie). "Rise" is unsuitable because it can mean just an improvement in status
Sieg des Geldes über die Güter Victory of money over landed property Victory of money over barter In literal translation, "Victory of money over goods"
Sieg ... des Geldes über die Politik Victory ... of money over policy Victory ... of money over politics A policy is a plan of action adopted by a government. The word "politics", in this context, denotes the policy-formulating aspects of government
Periode Tschun-tsiu 590–480. Chun-Chiu period (" Spring" and "Autumn"), 590–480 590–480: Chun-Chiu period ("Spring and Autumn")
Weltstadt und Provinz: Megalopolis and provinces. Cosmopolis and provinces. Weltstadt is "cosmopolis". Not every megalopolis is a cosmopolis
Geschichtsloses Erstarren History less stiffening Historyless stiffening

References

External links

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