Spengler's civilization model

Oswald Spengler's civilization model appears as three tables on a three-page-long folded sheet, placed after the Introduction to his Der Untergang des Abendlandes: Gestalt und Wirklichkeit. The English translation, published by Alfred A. Knopf in New York in 1926 as The Decline of the West: Form and Actuality, carries these tables at the end of the volume. For their meaning and significance, see the main article.

Prolegomenon

Spengler's tables reflect the inevitable transition from low-synergy spring (infancy, femininity) to high-synergy winter (old age, masculinity):

"The difference between children and adults is profound," Fair says. "In a graph depicting the strength of connections between the brain regions we studied, children's minds have just a few connections between some regions, while the adult brains have a web-like mesh of many different interconnecting links involving all the regions."

—Brain Network Linked to Contemplation in Adults is Less Complex in Children ScienceDaily, 11 March 2008

Women have a higher proportion of gray matter to cranial volume than men. Conversely, men have higher proportions of white matter and cerebrospinal fluid to cranial volume than women. Gray matter refers to the neuronal cell bodies and their dendrites, the short protrusions that communicate with immediately neighboring neurons in the brain. White matter refers to the longer axons, sheathed in a white fat called myelin, that reach out from neurons to more distant regions of the brain. Cerebrospinal fluid is the liquid in which the brain floats inside the head. Gray matter is where computation takes place, while white matter is responsible for communication between groups of cells in different areas of the brain.

—Sex Differences Found in Proportions of Gray and White Matter in the Brain: Links to Differences in Cognitive Performance Seen ScienceDaily, 18 May 1999

Spring, infancy	Winter, old age
Maximal potential energy, or, which is the same, minimal realized synergy	Minimal potential energy, or, which is the same, maximal realized synergy
Endomorphy, viscerotonia Children, women, the Mongoloids	Ectomorphy, cerebrotonia Adults, men, the Jews
Empathic apperception, short-range in space and time (a "frog's perspective")	Systematic apperception, long-range in space and time (an "eagle's perspective")
Infantile (feminine, rural, Mongoloid) brain: Predominance of gray matter (the neuronal cell bodies and their dendrites, the short protrusions that communicate with immediately neighbouring neurons in the brain). In such a brain, immature short-axoned neurons are united locally but alienated globally. The absence of long axons makes the brain incapable of novel synthesis	Adult (masculine, urban, Jewish) brain: Predominance of white matter (the axons that reach out from neurons to more distant regions of the brain; since an axon is insulated with myelin, it is "Aspergian"—alienated from its immediate surroundings). In such a brain, mature long-axoned neurons are alienated locally but united globally. The presence of long axons makes the brain capable of novel synthesis: "Genius is in nothing shown so distinctly as in the power of a mind to leap across great chasms, and join together in some novel synthesis ideas which ordinary minds have never compared. This is a power which cannot be acquired."
Flocking instinct and nationalism (people are united locally but alienated globally): "Viscerotonic people are extremely agglutinative. They tend to club together and to seek their satisfactions by supporting the group against the variant individual, or against individuality. They are Epimethean, as contrasted with Promethean." "Gregariousness is always the refuge of mediocrities, whether they swear by Solovyov or Kant or Marx. Only individuals seek the truth."	Individualism and cosmopolitanism (people are alienated locally but united globally): Cerebrotonia is the predominance of nervous tissue, which is "cosmopolitan"—interconnected encapsulated groups (ganglia) of neurons ("Jewish communities") reside in all organs ("countries") and orchestrate them into a single organism
Red colour (low-frequency light): Women like pink; Mongoloid flags (Japan, China, Vietnam) are red; sunrise (the spring of the day) is red	Blue colour (high-frequency light): Men like blue; the Jewish flag is blue; midnight (the winter of the day) is blue ("No brown after six")
Since lipocytes are redshifted, their metabolic rate is low: "V-16. There is a dull, vegetable-like quality, as if the fires of life burned slowly, without concentration of heat. The personality suggests lack of purpose beyond the elementary biological purposes. The relaxed protrusion of the lips (V-1) often brings to mind the picture of infantilism."	Since neurons are blueshifted, their metabolic rate is high. An average neuron consumes about ten times more resources than an average cell: "The brain comprises only 2% of body weight, yet accounts for 18% of resting energy consumption. It receives 15% of cardiac output and uses 20% of total body oxygen and 25% of total body glucose supplies."

The redshiftedness of the Mongoloids and the blueshiftedness of the Jews imply that they are the broad Epimethean and narrow Promethean parts of the same funnel-shaped gravity well:

Photons climbing out of a gravitating object become less energetic. This loss of energy is known as a "redshifting", as photons in the visible spectrum would appear more red. Similarly, photons falling into a gravitational field become more energetic and exhibit a blueshifting.

—Nemiroff, R. J. ♦ Gravitational principles and mathematics American Journal of Physics, 61, 619 (1993)

A gravity well is a gradient of matter waves' synergetic (energetically favourable) constructive interference. When matter waves spiral down such a gradient, their energy synergetically increases, and they become blueshifted. This increase in free energy is euphoric. Therefore, humanity can be imagined as Dante's inferno, in which the ensembles of matter waves, known as "human beings", spiral down a gradient of synergetic (energetically favourable) urbanization, towards an orgasmic "historyless stiffening", symbolized by the ice-bound Satan (in winter, nature is frozen and thus redeemed into a perfect image of eternity—"time shall be no more").

Imagine you have two synchronized clocks (two angels) and drop one of the clocks into a gravity well, leaving its twin at the gravity well's rim. The frequencies of the matter waves, of which the falling clock consists, will begin to increase, so that the falling clock (the falling angel) will run ever faster and will travel ever further into the future from its nonfalling twin. Thus, falling into the universe's gravitational potential is equivalent to travelling into the future, or, simply, to motion in time, which means that the universe's gravitational potential is eternity:

We are being sucked into the body of eternity.

—McKenna, Terence

Being such blueshifted fallen angels, men are Promethean (future-minded, goal-oriented) mentally and Mephistophelean (spaghettified, serpentine, penile) corporeally.

An organism, too, has a gradient of matter waves' constructive interference analogous to a gravity well, where the role of blueshifted fallen angels is played by neurons, whose spaghettification is manifested in their axons (neurons are the "wise serpents" among cells). The human brain can be simplistically regarded as a single neuron, whose axon is the spinal cord.

Matter waves' mutual constructive interference is their informed state, which is at a negative energy level and exerts suction, so that due to the siphon principle, energy surges in the present in order to overcome all barriers and tunnel to a future lower level. The siphon principle is the mechanism by which the more-informed future loans energy to the less-informed present. The beginning of the overtly exponential period of debt accrual roughly coincides with 14 February 1946—the day of the unveiling of the first electronic general-purpose computer (ENIAC), regarded as the birth of the Information Age.

A financial debt is essentially a potential difference—a voltage—in a dielectric medium between the status quo and a more informed future state. In November 1990, the voltage reached a critically high level, which initiated the final stage of the dielectric medium's pre-breakdown electrical treeing—the emergence of the World Wide Web. The progress of the electrical treeing is indicated by the concomitant release of positive energy (synergy, binding energy, heat of crystallization), measured as the growth in the nominal GDP per dollar of new debt. In the end of 2014 AD, the synergy of new debt will decrease to zero, at which moment the world will undergo an electrical breakdown—an instantaneous tunnelling to a more negative energy state.

• Positive energy creates positive pressure and is rotationally centrifugal—actual, angular, magnetic.
• Negative energy creates negative pressure (suction) and is irrotationally centripetal—potential, linear, electric:

From Maxwell equations (6.20) it follows that the electric field is potential: E(r) = −gradφ(r).

—Soviet Physics, Uspekhi v. 40, issues 1–6, American Institute of Physics, 1997, p. 39

Therefore, a more negative energy state is ephemeralized (spaghettified)—less actual (angular, magnetic, real) but more potential (linear, electric, virtual). Informational progress brings people to a more negative energy state and thus makes them more linear, ectomorph. Eventually, the material world will be ephemeralized (spaghettified) into eternity, which is a purely electric potential flow of free (holistic, aesthetic) information:

Bound information is always connected with a definite material structure, free information is abstract/symbolic. Free information is to a high degree independent from the carrier. <...>
Free information is connected with meaning and with goals (Zweck). <...>
In course of evolution several phase transitions from bound to free information are observed.

—Ebeling, Werner ♦ Entropy, Information and Predictability of Evolutionary Systems in Hofkirchner, Wolfgang (ed.) ♦ The Quest for a Unified Theory of Information ♦ Gordon and Breach, 1999, p. 262

Being analogue, free information can only be conveyed by analogies, which Oswald Spengler appears to have succeeded in doing.

Spiritual epochs

Phase	Indian from 1500 BC	Classical from 1100 BC	Arabian from 0	Western from 900
Spring Landscapely intuitive. Great creations of the newly awakened dream-heavy soul. Suprapersonal unity and fullness	Birth of a myth of the grand style expressing a new God-feeling. World-fear and world-longing
	1500–1200 BC Vedic religion Aryan hero-tales	1100–800 BC Hellenic-Italian "Demeter" religion of the people Homer Heracles and Theseus legends	1–300 Primitive Christianity (Mandaeans, Marcion, gnosis) Syncretism (Mithras, Baal) Gospels Apocalypses Christian, Mazdaist and pagan legends	900–1200 German Catholicism Edda (Balder) Bernard of Clairvaux, Joachim of Floris, Francis of Assisi Popular epos (Siegfried) Chivalric epos (Grail) Western legends of the saints
	Earliest mystical-metaphysical shaping of the new world-outlook. Zenith of Scholasticism
	Preserved in the oldest parts of the Vedas	Oldest (oral) Orphic, Etruscan discipline After-effect: Hesiod, cosmogonies	Origen († 254), Plotinus († 269) Mani († 276), Iamblichus († 330) Avesta, Talmud, patristic literature	Thomas Aquinas († 1274) Duns Scotus († 1308) Dante Alighieri († 1321) Meister Eckhart († 1329) Mysticism Scholasticism
Summer Ripening consciousness. Earliest urban and critical stirrings	Reformation: internal popular opposition to the great springtime forms
	10th–9th century BC Brahmanas, oldest elements of the Upanishads	7th century BC Orphic movement Dionysiac religion Religion of Numa Pompilius	Augustine of Hippo († 430) Nestorianism (ca. 430) Monophysitism (ca. 450) Mazdak (ca. 500)	Nicolaus Cusanus († 1464) Hus († 1415), Savonarola, Karlstadt, Luther, Calvin († 1564)
	Beginning of a purely philosophical form of the world-feeling. Opposition of idealistic and realistic systems
	Preserved in the Upanishads	6th–5th century BC The great pre-Socratics	6–7th century Byzantine, Jewish, Syrian, Coptic and Persian literature	16–17th century Galileo Galilei Francis Bacon René Descartes Giordano Bruno Jakob Böhme Gottfried Leibniz
	Formation of a new mathematic conception of number as copy and content of world-form
	Missing	Number as magnitude (measure) Geometry, arithmetic Pythagoreans (from 540)	The indefinite number (algebra) Development not yet investigated	Number as function (analysis) Descartes, Pascal, Fermat (ca. 1630) Newton, Leibniz (ca. 1670)
	Puritanism. Rationalistic-mystic impoverishment of religion
	Traces in the Upanishads	Pythagorean Society (from 540)	Mohammed (622) Paulicians and Iconoclasts (from 650)	English Puritans since 1620 French Jansenists since 1640 (Port Royal)
Autumn Intelligence of the city. Zenith of rigorous conceptualization	"Enlightenment". Belief in the almightiness of reason. Cult of "Nature". "Rational" religion
	Sutras; Sankhya; Buddha; later Upanishads	Sophism (5th century BC) Socrates († 399 BC) Democritus († ca. 360 BC)	Mutazilite Sufism Ibrahim al-Nazzam Al-Kindi	Sensualism John Locke Encyclopedie Voltaire Jean Jacques Rousseau
	Zenith of mathematical thought. Elucidation of the world of numerical concepts
	Zero as a number	Archytas († 365) Plato († 346) Eudoxus († 355) (conic section)	Number theory Spherical trigonometry	Leonhard Euler († 1783), Joseph-Louis Lagrange († 1813) Pierre-Simon Laplace († 1827) (the infinitesimal problem)
	The great conclusive systems
	Idealism: Yoga, Vedanta Epistemology: Vaisheshika Logic: Nyaya	Plato († 346 BC) Aristotle († 322 BC)	Al-Farabi († 950) Avicenna († ca. 1000)	Goethe, Kant Schelling Hegel Fichte
Winter Onset of cosmopolitan civilization. End of crystallization of emotions into concepts. Life itself becomes problematical. Ethical-practical tendencies of a realized cosmopolitanism	Crystallized world-view. Cult of holistic understanding and emotionlessness
	Sankhya, Cārvāka (Lokoyata)	Cynics, Cyrenaics, last Sophists (Pyrrhon)	Communistic, atheistic, Epicurean sects of Abbasid times Brethren of Sincerity	Bentham, Comte, Darwin, Spencer, Stirner, Marx, Feuerbach
	Ethical-social ideals of life. Epoch of "nonmathematical philosophy". "Skepsis"
	Tendencies in Buddha's time	Hellenism Epicurus († 270 BC), Zeno († 265 BC)	Movements in Islam	Schopenhauer, Nietzsche Socialism, anarchism Hebbel, Wagner, Ibsen
	Inner completion of the world of mathematical concepts. The concluding thought
	(lost)	Euclid, Apollonius (ca. 300 BC) Archimedes (ca. 250 BC)	Al-Khwarizmi (800), ibn Qurra (850) Al-Karaji, Al-Biruni (10th century)	Gauss († 1855), Cauchy († 1857) Riemann († 1866)
	Degradation of abstract thinking into professional lecture-room philosophy. Compendium literature
	The "six classical systems"	The Academy, Peripatetics, Stoics, Epicureans	Schools of Baghdad and Basra	Kantianism Logic Psychology
	Spread of a final world-sentiment
	Indian Buddhism since 500	Hellenistic-Roman Stoicism since 200	The practical fatalism in Islam since 1000	The spread of ethical socialism from 1900

Corrections

German original	Alfred A. Knopf's 1926 edition	Current version	Comment
Landschaftlich-intuitiv.	Rural-intuitive.	Landscapely intuitive.	Cf. the 1923 Landschaftlich-physiognomisch (Landscapely Physiognomic) gouache painting by Paul Klee
Überpersönliche Einheit	Super-personal unity	Suprapersonal unity	"Super-personal" can be misinterpreted as "extremely personal"
Höhepunkt strenggeistiger Gestaltungskraft	Zenith of strict intellectual creativeness	Zenith of rigorous conceptualization
Abklärung der Formenwelt der Zahlen	Elucidation of the form-world of numbers	Elucidation of the world of numerical concepts	Spengler uses Form as a synonym of Gestalt ("concept")
Epoche der "Philosophie ohne Mathematik".	Epoch of "unmathematical philosophy".	Epoch of "nonmathematical philosophy".	Ohne means "without", "non-", whereas the prefix "un-" means "not; contrary to; opposite of".
Anbruch der weltstädtischen Zivilisation.	Dawn of Megalopolitan Civilization.	Onset of cosmopolitan civilization.	Anbruch means "onset". "Dawn" is applicable to the Spring and Autumn phases, but not to the Winter phase, which is the midnight of the solar year. Weltstadt is "cosmopolis". Not every megalopolis is a cosmopolis
Erlöschen der seelischen Gestaltungskraft.	Extinction of spiritual creative force.	End of crystallization of emotions into concepts.	Concepts are crystallized emotions: "What is named, comprehended, measured is ipso facto overpowered, made inert and taboo."
Ethisch-praktische Tendenzen eines irreligiösen and unmetaphysischen Weltstädtertums	Ethical-practical tendencies of an irreligious and unmetaphysical cosmopolitanism	Ethical-practical tendencies of a realized cosmopolitanism	This section includes "The practical fatalism in Islam since 1000". Therefore, rather than being "irreligious and unmetaphysical", the cosmopolitanism of the Winter phase is realized in the physical world, and, due to that, is no longer just abstract (religious and metaphysical), but is also practical. Moreover, the main attribute of the World Spirit is omnipresence, nonlocality, cosmopolitanism. That is why "cosmopolitanism" is essentially a synonym of "monotheism" and cannot be "irreligious and unmetaphysical". E.g., the professedly materialistic and irreligious Marxism tacitly assumes the existence of immaterial and omnipresent laws of nature, equivalent to the monotheistic Logos or World Spirit
Materialistische Weltanschauung: Kultus der Wissenschaft, des Nutzens, des Glückes	Materialistic world-outlook. Cult of science, utility and prosperity	Crystallized world-view. Cult of holistic understanding and emotionlessness	Included in this section are Buddhism, Islam, Schopenhauer and Nietzsche. In such a context, materialistische cannot be translated as "materialistic". During the Winter phase, water (emotions) is frozen into ice crystals (concepts). While the "mathematical thought" of the table's Autumn section is concerned with scientific knowledge, the "nonmathematical philosophy" of the Winter section is concerned with holistic understanding. Therefore, Wissenschaft should be translated as "holistic understanding". Since a holistic understanding of utility is based on the ultimate goal, Kultus des Nutzens should be interpreted as "goal-orientedness". Listed in this section are the Cynics, the Epicureans, the Stoics, the Pyrrhonists and the Buddhists, who understand the ultimate goal as ataraxia—emotionlessness. Also included in this section is socialism (whose core idea, according to Spengler, consists in socializing all the individual "human particles" of the planet into a "single crystal"—a world-wide "imperium of gradually increasing crudity of despotism", within which the socialists will subjectively feel free because they define freedom as understood necessity), which too construes happiness as emotionlessness: Lo! I show you THE LAST MAN. “What is love? What is creation? What is longing? What is a star?”—so asketh the last man and blinketh. The earth hath then become small, and on it there hoppeth the last man who maketh everything small. His species is ineradicable like that of the ground-flea; the last man liveth longest. “We have discovered happiness”—say the last men, and blink thereby. They have left the regions where it is hard to live; for they need warmth. One still loveth one’s neighbour and rubbeth against him; for one needeth warmth. Turning ill and being distrustful, they consider sinful: they walk warily. He is a fool who still stumbleth over stones or men! A little poison now and then: that maketh pleasant dreams. And much poison at last for a pleasant death. One still worketh, for work is a pastime. But one is careful lest the pastime should hurt one. One no longer becometh poor or rich; both are too burdensome. Who still wanteth to rule? Who still wanteth to obey? Both are too burdensome. No shepherd, and one herd! Every one wanteth the same; every one is equal: he who hath other sentiments goeth voluntarily into the madhouse. “Formerly all the world was insane,”—say the subtlest of them, and blink thereby. They are clever and know all that hath happened: so there is no end to their raillery. People still fall out, but are soon reconciled—otherwise it spoileth their stomachs. They have their little pleasures for the day, and their little pleasures for the night, but they have a regard for health. “We have discovered happiness,”—say the last men, and blink thereby.— —Nietzsche, Friedrich ♦ Thus Spake Zarathustra It should be noted that Nietzche had obviously failed to understand that the emotionlessness of the tight-lipped cerebrotonic "last men" is only outward. It is the emotionlessness of a poker player—as Sheldon noted about the cerebrotonics, "Such people have a genius for being 'misunderstood'."
Innere Vollendung der mathematischen Formenwelt.	Inner completion of the mathematical form-world.	Inner completion of the world of mathematical concepts.

Artistic epochs

Phase		Egyptian	Classical	Arabian	Western
Precultural period Chaos of primitive expression forms. Mystical symbolism and naive imitation		Thinite period (3400–3000 BC)	Mycenian age (1600–1100 BC) Late Egyptian (Minoan) Late Babylonian (Asia Minor)	Persian-Seleucid period (500 BC–0) Late classical (Hellenistic) Late Indian (Indo-Iranian)	Merovingian-Carolingian era (500–900)
Culture Life history of a style formative of the entire outer being. Form-language of deepest symbolic necessity	Early period Ornamentation and architecture as elementary expression of the young world-feeling (the "primitives")	OLD KINGDOM (2900–2400 BC)	DORIC (1100–500 BC)	EARLY ARABIAN FORM-WORLD (Sassanid, Byzantine, Armenian, Syrian, Sabæan, "late classical" and "early Christian") (0–500)	GOTHIC (900–1500)
		Birth and rise. Forms sprung from the land, unconsciously shaped
		Dynasties IV–V (2930–2625 BC) Geometrical temple style Pyramid temples Ranked plant-columns Rows of flat relief Tomb statues	11th–9th centuries BC Timber building Doric column Architrave Geometric (Dipylon) style Burial urns	1st–3rd centuries Ritual interiors Basilica Dome Mosque Sarcophagus	11–13th centuries Romanesque architecture Gothic architecture Dome Stained glass
		Completion of the early form-language. Exhaustion of possibilities. Contradiction
		2320–2200 BC 6th dynasty End of pyramid and epic relief styles Bloom of archaic portraits.	8th–7th centuries BC End of Dorian and Etruscan styles Corinth Attica Greek mythology	4th–5th centuries End of Persian, Syrian, and Coptic arts Mosaic Arabesque	14–15th centuries Late Gothic and Renaissance Bloom and end of fresco and statue, from Giotto to Michelangelo Baroque Siena Nuremberg Panel painting from Jan van Eyck to Hans Holbein the Younger Counterpoint Oil painting
	Late period Formation of a group of urbanely exquisite arts in the hands of individuals (the "great masters")	Formation of a mature artistry
		2130–1990 BC 11th dynasty No trace of lost art	Completion of the temple (peristyle) Ionic order Polygnotus (460) Apollo of Tenea of Ageladas	Completion of the mosque (Hagia Sophia) Completion of the arabesque style (Mshatta facade)	Architectural painting from Michelangelo to Gian Lorenzo Bernini († 1680) Dominance of oil painting from Titian to Rembrandt († 1669) Rise of music from Orlande de Lassus to Heinrich Schütz († 1672)
		Perfection of an intellectualized form-language
		1990–1790 BC 12th dynasty Use of pylons in temple construction Labyrinth	480–350 BC Bloom of Athens Acropolis Rule of classical forms from Myron to Phidias Decline of fresco and clay painting (Zeuxis and Parrhasius)	7–8th centuries Umayyad dynasty Complete victory of featureless arabesque over architecture also	Rococo Musical architecture ("rococo") Reign of classical music from Bach to Mozart End of classical oil painting from Watteau to Goya
		Exhaustion of strict creativeness. Dissolution of grand form. End of style. "Classicism and romanticism"
		Confusion after about 1750	Alexander the Great The Corinthian column Lysippos Apelles	Harun al-Raschid (ca. 800) "Moorish art"	Classicist taste in architecture Second Empire Biedermeier Neoclassicism Ludwig van Beethoven Eugène Delacroix
Civilization Existence without inner form. Cosmopolitan art as a habit, luxury, sport, thrill. Rapidly changing fashions in art (revivals, arbitrary inventions, borrowings)		Modern art. "Art problems". Attempts to portray or to excite the metropolitan consciousness. Transformation of music, architecture and painting into mere craft arts
		Hyksos period (1675–1550 BC). Preserved only in Crete (Minoan art)	Hellenism Pergamene art (theatricality) Hellenistic painting modes (veristic, bizarre, subjective) Archetictual display in the cities of the Diadochi	Sultan dynasties of 9th–10th centuries Prime of Spanish-Sicilian art Samarra	19th and 20th centuries Liszt, Berlioz, Wagner Impressionism from Constable to Leibl and Manet American architecture
		End of form development. Meaningless, empty, artificial, pretentious architecture and ornament. Imitation of archaic and exotic motives
		18th dynasty (1550–1328 BC) Rock temple of Deir el-Bahri. Colossi of Memnon. Art of Knossos and Amarna	Roman period (100 BC–100 AD) Indiscriminate piling of all three orders. Fora, theaters (Colosseum). Triumphal arches	Seljuks (since 1050) "Oriental art" of the crusade period	From 2000
		Finale. Formation of a fixed stock of forms. Imperial display by means of material and mass. Provincial craft art
		19th dynasty (1328–1195 BC) Gigantic buildings of Luxor, Karnak, and Abydos Small art (animal sculpture, textiles, arms)	Trajan to Aurelian Gigantic fora, thermae, colonnades, triumphal arches Roman provincial art (ceramics, statues, arms)	Mongol period (from 1250) Gigantic buildings (e.g. in India) Oriental craft art (rugs, arms, implements)

Corrections

German original	Alfred A. Knopf's 1926 edition	Current version	Comment
Lebensgeschichte eines das gesamte äußere Sein formenden Stils.	Life-history of a style formative of the entire inner-being.	Life history of a style formative of the entire outer being.	Äußer is "outer", not "inner"
Bildung einer Gruppe städtisch-bewußter, gewählter, von Einzelnen getragener Künste: "Die großen Meister"	(Formation of a group of arts urban and conscious, in the hands of individuals) ("Great Masters")	Formation of a group of urbanely exquisite arts in the hands of individuals (the "great masters")	Städtisch-bewußt means "urbane", not "urban and conscious". Gewählt means "exquisite"
Weltstadtkunst als Gewohnheit, Luxus, Sport, Nervenreiz.	Megalopolitan art as a common-place: luxury, sport, nerve excitement:	Cosmopolitan art as a habit, luxury, sport, thrill.	Weltstadt is "cosmopolis". Not every megalopolis is a cosmopolis
willkürliche Erfindungen	arbitrary discoveries	arbitrary inventions
Tierplastik	beast plastic	animal sculpture	The Egyptian plastic art includes relief sculptures of birds and arthropods. Therefore, in this instance, Tier means "animal", not "beast": Der Vogel ist ein Tier

Political epochs

Phase		Egyptian	Classical	Chinese	Western
Precultural period Primitive folk. Tribes and their chiefs. As yet no "politics" and no "state"		Thinite period (MENES) 3100–2600	Mycenaean age ("AGAMEMNON") 1600–1100	Shang period 1700–1300	Frankish period CHARLEMAGNE 500–900
Culture National groups of definite style and particular world-feeling ("nations"). Working of an immanent state-idea	Early period Organic differentiation of political existence. The first two estates—nobility and priesthood. Feudal natural economy	OLD KINGDOM 2600–2200	DORIC PERIOD 1100–650	EARLY CHOU PERIOD 1300–800	GOTHIC PERIOD 900–1500
		1. Feudalism. Spirit of countryside and countryman. The "city" only a market or stronghold. Chivalric-religious ideals. Struggles of vassals amongst themselves and against overlord
		Feudal conditions of IV and V dynasties (2550–2320 BC) Increasing power of feudatories and priesthoods. The pharaoh as incarnation of Ra	The Homeric kingship Rise of the nobility (Ithaka, Etruria, Sparta)	The central ruler (Wang) pressed hard by the feudal nobility	Roman-German imperial period Crusading nobility Empire and papacy
		2. Crisis and dissolution of patriarchal forms. From feudalism to aristocratic state
		VI dynasty (2320–2200 BC): Breakup of the kingdom into heritable principalities. VII and VIII dynasties: Interregnum	Aristocratic synoecism Dissolution of kingship into annual offices Oligarchy	934–904: I-Wang and the vassals 842: Interregnum	Territorial princes Renaissance towns. Lancaster and York 1254: Interregnum
	Late period Actualization of the matured state-idea. Town versus countryside: emergence of the Third Estate (bourgeoisie). Victory of money over barter
		MIDDLE KINGDOM 2150–1800	IONIC PERIOD 650–300	LATE CHOU PERIOD 800–500	BAROQUE PERIOD 1500–1800
		3. Fashioning of a world of states of strict form. Frondes
		11th dynasty Overthrow of the baronage by the rulers of Thebes Centralized bureaucracy-state	6th century The first tyrannis (Cleisthenes, Periander, Polycrates, the Tarquins) The city-state	Period of the "Protectors" (Ming-Chu 685–591) and the congresses of princes (–460)	Dynastic family-power, and Fronde (Richelieu, Wallenstein, Cromwell)—ca. 1630
		4. Climax of the state-form ("absolutism"). Unity of town and country ("state" and "society", the "three estates")
		1990–1790: 12th dynasty Strictest centralization of power Court and finance nobility Amenemhet, Sesostris	The pure polis (absolutism of the demos) Agora politics Rise of the tribunate Themistocles, Pericles	590–480: Chun-Chiu period ("Spring and Autumn") Seven powers Perfection of social forms (Li)	Ancien Régime. Rococo. Court nobility of Versailles. Cabinet politics. Habsburg and Bourbon. Louis XIV, Frederick the Great
		5. Break-up of the state-form (revolution and Napoleonism). Victory of the city over the countryside (of the "people" over the privileged, of the intelligentsia over tradition, of money over politics)
		1788–1680: Revolution and military government. Decay of the realm. Small potentates, in some cases sprung from the people	4th century: Social revolution and the second tyrannis (Dionysus I, Jason of Pherae, Appius Claudius the Censor) Alexander	480: Beginning of the Chan-Kwo period 441: Fall of the Chou dynasty. Revolutions and annihilation-wars	End of the 18th century: Revolution in America and France (Washington, Fox, Mirabeau, Robespierre) Napoleon
Civilization The body of the people, now essentially urban in constitution, dissolves into a formless mass. Cosmopolis and provinces. The Fourth Estate (the "masses")—inorganic, cosmopolitan		1. Domination of money ("democracy"). Economic powers permeating the political forms and authorities
		1675–1550: Hyksos period. Deepest decline. Dictatures of alien generals (Chian). After 1600, definitive victory of the rulers of Thebes	300–100: Political Hellenism. From Alexander to Hannibal and Scipio, royal all-power; from Cleomenes III and C. Flaminius (220) to C. Marius, radical demagogues	480–230: Period of the "contending states" 288: The imperial title. The imperialist statesmen of Tsin From 289, incorporation of the last states into the empire	1800–2000 19th century: From Napoleon to World War I. "System of great powers", standing armies, constitutions 20th century: Transition from constitutional to informal sway of individuals. Annihilation wars. Imperialism
		2. Formation of Caesarism. Victory of force-politics over money. Increasing primitiveness of political forms. Inward decline of the nations into a formless population, and constitution thereof as an imperium of gradually increasing crudity of despotism
		1580–1350: Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt Thutmose III	100 BC–100 AD: Sulla to Domitian Julius Caesar Tiberius	250 BC–26 AD: House of Wang-Cheng and Western Han dynasty 221 BC: Augustus title (Shi) of emperor (Hwang-ti) 140–80 BC: Wu-ti	2000–2200
		3. Maturing of the final form. Private and family policies of individual leaders. The world as spoil. Egypticism, mandarinism, Byzantinism. Historyless stiffening and enfeeblement even of the imperial machinery, against young peoples eager for spoil, or alien conquerors. Primitive human conditions slowly thrust up into the highly civilized mode of living
		1350–1205: Nineteenth dynasty of Egypt Sethos I Rameses II	100–300: Trajan to Aurelian Trajan Septimius Severus	25–320: Eastern Han dynasty 58–71: Emperor Ming of Han	after 2200

Corrections

German original	Alfred A. Knopf's 1926 edition	Current version	Comment
Organische Gliederung des politischen Daseins.	Organic articulation of political existence.	Organic differentiation of political existence.	"Articulation" means "jointing together", whereas Gliederung means "separation into parts", "differentiation"
Die beiden frühen Stande: Adel und Priestertum.	The two prime classes (noble and priest).	The first two estates—nobility and priesthood.
Feudalwirtschaft der reinen Bodenwerte	Feudal economics; purely agrarian values	Feudal natural economy	Wirtschaft is "economy", not "economics"
Auflösung des Königtums in Jahresämter	Dissolution of kinship into annual offices	Dissolution of kingship into annual offices
Die Stadt gegen das Land: Entstehung des Dritten Standes [Bürgertum].	Town versus countryside. Rise of Third Estate (Bourgeoisie).	Town versus countryside: emergence of the Third Estate (bourgeoisie).	"Rise" is unsuitable because it can mean just an improvement in status
Sieg des Geldes über die Güter	Victory of money over landed property	Victory of money over barter	In literal translation, "Victory of money over goods"
Sieg ... des Geldes über die Politik	Victory ... of money over policy	Victory ... of money over politics	A policy is a plan of action adopted by a government. The word "politics", in this context, denotes the policy-formulating aspects of government
Periode Tschun-tsiu ["Frühling und Herbst"] 590–480.	Chun-Chiu period (" Spring" and "Autumn"), 590–480	590–480: Chun-Chiu period ("Spring and Autumn")
Weltstadt und Provinz:	Megalopolis and provinces.	Cosmopolis and provinces.	Weltstadt is "cosmopolis". Not every megalopolis is a cosmopolis
Geschichtsloses Erstarren	History less stiffening	Historyless stiffening

External links

The following links to print versions of the tables are provided for verification purposes.
In German:

• "Gleichzeitiger" Geistesepochen
• "Gleichzeitiger" Kunstepochen
• "Gleichzeitiger" politischer Epochen

In English:

• Spengler, Oswald ♦ The Decline of the West v. 1 (©1926) and v. 2 (©1928), Alfred A. Knopf