On the Occasion of Centenary of the Decline of the West or the Downfall of the Occident

Abstract

The paper discusses the key ideas of a well-known work The Decline of the West (German: Der Untergang des Abendlandes) or The Downfall of the Occident written by Oswald Spengler a hundred years ago. A major topic of the work - the decline of culture and degradation of morals, policy, and economic system of the western civilization is widely discussed at present too. Spengler believed that the decline of any great culture is inevitable and manifests itself in its transition to a phase of civilization, i.e., according to his criteria, urbanization, imperialism, and socialism, which he treated rather as spiritual, than material phenomena. Moreover, rationalism, skepticism, and atheism widely spread in spiritual life of the society are also considered as evidences of the decline of traditional culture. The paper made an attempt to analyze a modern situation in the European countries according to the criteria specified.