/lit/ - Literature

>>19219478
>I also don't see how a question about the future is a non-causal one
In the example I gave I opened the question up to be answered in a non causal way. The only way to answer what causes y is through saying X which is innately causal. Where as asking about the future can lead one to answer in both causal and non causal methods.

>If I'm asking how a society compares to a withering tree, it's more about getting at the substantiation of the statement
Okay I see. The attempt to substantiate then is just lacking a bit of key information. It is apt to briefly summarize Spengler's method as comparing the modern west with a withering tree, but its insufficient in telling the full depth of his model. The original criticism I had at your substantiation was just it lacking in the key information of Spengler's model not because causal which was the logic you used in attempting to see if his model held up to scrutiny. Which was fair given the information you had. But I see that this is our goal now so pic related describes his model outlined in the first book in depth. As you can see its morphological and keeps true to the idea of our current stage in the western Faustian civilization (his term to describe the west is with Goethe's Faust) but the substance of his model is to be more compared to the developmental cycles of other high cultures which can be likened to trees (as can most organisms) but most certainly are not.

>Isn't the model such that if a society collapses for internal reasons, then its conditions will be interpreted as of a withering tree, whereas if that same society should spring back up from the crisis stronger than ever, it would then instead show that it's at its vigorous, expansionary phase still
No, pic related is Spengler's model summarized. If at any point a high culture is to not meet one of Spengler's conditions which he outlines then it has failed to meet the criteria Spengler has put forward and his model has been falsified. That isn't to say one condition necessitates another due to it being non causal, allowing for a great degree of freedom (if one culture is to have a Socratic man appear then an Alexander man where as another is the opposite that doesn't detract from the model) but we should expect all items to be met throughout the morphology of a culture's life cycle, which follows a 1400 year arch and can be separated into areas where certain morphological events can be expected to transpire. Ex: in winter we do not expect a culture to bounce back with vigor of a healthier epoch.