/lit/ - Literature

Which is his best work to begin with? Any influences you should read beforehand?

QRD on this guy?

Quick rundown on this guy?

Decline of the West
>Expect "everything used to be good, now it all sucks" bs
>Actually get a prescient philosophy of history.

What reason is there left to hope for?

>People thinking that economic success equals some form of "rise"
>People completely oblivious to the extreme rot within China
It's the same as in the West, yet somehow people turn a blind eye to it in China.

>mfw a philosophical magazine in my country had an issue devoted to Spengler
>tfw it had 3 articles on why you shouldnt read Spengler because he's dangerous, a nazi, influential to the alt-right, and because he was wrong (though they didn't specify why he was wrong).
Yeah i was mad

What exactly is the second religiosity that Spengler wrote about? Is it what we currently see with people looking for spiritualism in asinine nonsense like witchcraft and horoscopes?

>>14794436
Second religiousness

>>13862164
>The Iliad is the basic bedrock of all of Western Civilization
*Blocks your path*

>Predicts that the "West" will decline due to cultural reasons, rather than economic ones
>Claims idealism is deterministic throughout history
>Claims science and technology are worth more than art and philosophy, basically a STEMlord before STEMlords
>is a reactionary and a nationalist
>Claims everything's fucked and we're all doomed
Why is he shilled here? I dont get it. If you want cultural criticism, go for Adorno/Benjamin, and if you want an interpretation of history, go for Marx.

>Occultism and soulless ritualism
Second religiosity, we are decaying as planned

>>13546885
50 thousand years? Even people 1000 years from now will consider Western achievements incomprehensible gibberish. They will wonder why we wasted so much time creating so much nonsense.

Is Decline still worth reading, or is it outdated?

First Spengler General on /lit/. Share your thoughts, questions, challenges, and interpretations of the works of Oswald Spengler!

>Selected Works
-Man and Technics: http://fatuma.net/text/Spengler_Man-Technics.pdf
-Decline of the West: https://archive.org/stream/Decline-Of-The-West-Oswald-Spengler/Decline_Of_The_West_djvu.txt
-Prussianism and Socialism: http://www.worldfuturefund.org/wffmaster/Reading/Germany/P%20Soc/Prussianism.Socialism.htm
-Spengler Collection Torrent: https://thepiratebay.org/torrent/7739183/Oswald_Spengler_book_pack

>FAQ:
Q: Who was Spengler? A: Spengler (1880-1936) is a philosopher of history who rose to popularity during the Weimar Republic with the release of his book "The Decline of the West". His works consider that any human culture is a superorganism and as all of these superorganisms are "bound" by being comprised of humans, they share comparable patterns.
Q: Was he a Nazi? A: He was not a National Socialist, but arguably enabled them. He did vote for Hitler in 1932, but was persona non grata with the party by 1933. He debated Rosenberg about his racial theories (though Spengler is most certainly a racialist), as a follower of Nietzsche he thought anti-semitism to be silly, and the only book he published during Nazi rule was banned. That said, his critiques of capitalism, marxist socialism, and liberalism were widely used by the Nazis and he was a member of the increasingly Nazi-influenced German Academy in 1933.
Q: Is Spengler cyclical history? A: This is a common phrase used to describe Spengler, but is incorrect. Neither the history, nor the culture/civilization itself are cyclical. Each culture/civilization is a unique and finite organism.
Q: Why should I read any of his works? A: If nothing else, to understand the worldview of a serious historical+philosophical heavyweight. There are plenty of great criticisms of Spengler's ideas, but his depth of knowledge of the minutiae of societies across the world is constantly impressing.

Nothing killed aesthetics. Art died because its spark was exhausted. The communist pipedream that we can have free art under communism is ultimately nothing but that; a pipedream.
Buckle up faggot. You're in for a cold and godless century.

People keep saying Spengler was right about many things, but can you point out some more specific predictions he made that have come true? In particular the progress of capitalism.

Was he right about everything or have his views become outdated? Why was he so influential in the 1920's but forgotten today?

yeah

>blatantly says that empiricism and a scientific approach to history are bullshit
>still makes a huge amount of predictions on the course of western civilization
>actually pretty prescient as well, despite his rejection of empiricism
how did he do it?

>>13305972
>>13305975
Mein Gott!

Hope about the state of this board is cowardice

Being conservatively minded and not religious is a very isolating way to live. I would not recommend it. The only way to survive with a worldview like that is to ignore it, learn to live with depression, or overcome it with subjectiveness (religiosity)

Wait, so you are telling me that culture matters?
Mind = blown