Decline of the West (vols. 1 & 2)

Description

math & science §§ (ref:15.1-133 "II. The Meaning of Numbers" & ref:33.1-129 "XI. Faustian and Apollinian Nature Knowledge") recommended by [Jeff Kalb](https://isidore.co/calibre/#panel=book_list&search=authors:%22%3DKalb%2C%20Jeffrey%20C.%2C%20Jr.%22) as insightful analysis for how modern math-as-logic and physics have come to an endreminiscent of [Max Planck's advisor Philipp von Jolly telling him there's nothing new to be done in physics, that everything has been discovered already](https://hsm.stackexchange.com/a/2130/232):> When I began my physical studies [in Munich in 1874] and sought advice from my venerable teacher Philipp von Jolly...he portrayed to me physics as a highly developed, almost fully matured science...Possibly in one or another nook there would perhaps be a dust particle or a small bubble to be examined and classified, but the system as a whole stood there fairly secured, and theoretical physics approached visibly that degree of perfection which, for example, geometry has had already for centuries. cf. [Lord Kelvin's](https://hsm.stackexchange.com/a/201/232) "There is nothing new to be discovered in physics now. All that remains is more and more precise measurement."Spengler atheist?* * *Since its first publication in two volumes between 1918-1923, *The Decline of the West* has ranked as one of the most widely read and most talked about books of our time. In all its various editions, it has sold nearly 100,000 copies. A twentieth-century Cassandra, Oswald Spengler thoroughly probed the origin and "fate" of our civilization, and the result can be (and has been) read as a prophesy of the Nazi regime. His challenging views have led to harsh criticism over the years, but the knowledge and eloquence that went into his sweeping study of Western culture have kept *The Decline of the West* alive. As the face of Germany and Europe as a whole continues to change each day, *The Decline of the West* cannot be ignored. The abridgment, prepared by the German scholar Helmut Werner, with the blessing of the Spengler estate, consists of selections from the original (translated into English by Charles Francis Atkinson) linked by explanatory passages which have been put into English by Arthur Helps. H. Stuart Hughes has written a new introduction for this edition. In this engrossing and highly controversial philosophy of history, Spengler describes how we have entered into a centuries-long "world-historical" phase comparable to late antiquity. Guided by the philosophies of Goethe and Nietzsche, he rejects linear progression, and instead presents a world view based on the cyclical rise and decline of civilizations. He argues that a culture blossoms from the soil of a definable landscape and dies when it has exhausted all of its possibilities. Despite Spengler's reputation today as an extreme pessimist, *The Decline of the West* remains essential reading for anyone interested in the history of civilization.