Discussing "The Decline Of The West – Volume I: Form And Actuality" By Oswald Spengler
In this episode of Canonball we discuss Volume I of "The Decline Of The West," which, subtitled "Form And Actuality," was written by Oswald Spengler and published in 1918.
A correction: Spengler actually includes in the end matter exactly the kind of table that I said that I wished he had, but I had not seen it by the time I made this recording. I address this in looking at Volume II in another video.
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00:00 Spengler's Life – Education, Career, Fame, Criticism, And Politics
05:58 A Very General Outline Of A Central Argument In "Decline Of The West"
08:50 The Faustian Period
10:14 Strengths And Weaknesses
19:05 Beginning Of Passages – Spengler's Basic Questions And The "Ptolemaic" View Of History
24:34 "World-History As A Picture Of Endless Formations And Transformations, Of The Marvelous Waxing And Waning Of Organic Forms"
25:18 "Expression-Forms" And "Sound-Symbols"
27:53 How Spengler Uses The Terms "Culture" And "Civilization"
30:36 The Decline Of The West
33:03 An Anecdote About How Spengler Came To This View Of History
40:27 Euclidian Geometry And Infinitesimal Calculus As Representing The Classical And The Faustian
41:43 "A Strange And Vast Tone-World"
43:16 Pythagoras, Descartes, And Different Notions Of Number
44:59 "The Moon, Too, Seems To Us Bigger Than Jupiter Or Saturn"
47:08 Mathematicians As An Expression Of The Soul Of A Culture
48:53 How Different Cultures Have Kept Historical Records
50:45 The Death Of An Art
52:13 Music And "Pure Space"
53:59 Math, Music, The Violin, And Chamber Music
56:04 Struggle As An Ethical Principle
57:48 Closing