Oswald Spengler

Oswald Spengler (1880–1936) was a German historian and philosopher best known for The Decline of the West and its theory that civilizations follow recurring life cycles.

The Decline of the West: Oswald Spengler’s two-volume work argues that major cultures develop through recurring phases and eventually become civilizations. This is where Spengler lays out the historical framework associated with his name.
Culture–civilization distinction: The culture–civilization distinction separates a society’s formative, creative phase from its later, urban and institutional phase. Spengler made this transition the defining turn in a culture’s life cycle.
World War I: World War I was a global conflict from 1914 to 1918 that involved the major European powers and their allies. Spengler began writing his major work before the war, but its publication coincided with German defeat.
Marxist historiography: Marxist historiography explains historical change through material conditions, class relations, and conflicts over production. It contrasts with Spengler’s emphasis on cultural forms and organic life cycles.
Cultural morphology: Cultural morphology compares societies by examining the forms and patterns through which they develop. Spengler presented his approach as a morphology of world history.
Historical cycle: A historical cycle is a recurring sequence of developmental phases applied to societies or civilizations. Spengler described cultures as passing through patterned stages from formation to decline.
Weimar Republic: The Weimar Republic was Germany’s parliamentary republic from 1918 to 1933. Spengler’s public influence grew amid the republic’s political and cultural upheaval.
Linear progress: Linear progress is the view that human history advances over time toward greater knowledge, freedom, or prosperity. Spengler opposed optimistic accounts of history as a single upward trajectory.
Historical determinism: Historical determinism holds that historical outcomes follow necessary patterns or forces rather than being wholly contingent. Spengler’s life-cycle model makes the broad course of cultures appear structurally constrained.
Prime symbol: In Spengler’s theory, a prime symbol is the fundamental spatial image that expresses a culture’s distinctive sense of reality. Prime symbols explain how each culture gives its world a different underlying form.

Linked from 9 pages