Decline of the West, Volume Two - Oswald Spengler | Part 1, Reading & Discussion

Alright folks.

This will be the first edition in our exploration of Oswald Spengler's 1922 follow-up to 1918's The Decline of the West: Form & Actuality - from henceforth, Perspectives of World-History will be our primary concern.

Behind us are the lengthy considerations of Rembrandt's studio-brown, the deliberations on varieties of garden-art, the confusion surrounding hatred of plein-air, the bickering over the Renaissance as a revolt of plastic poseurs, the vague definitions of pseudomorphosis, the designation of the Apollonian as a world-fearing faction of fumbling body-obsessed buffoons. Certainly this is behind us. It must be. How could it not be.

For this initial session, we will be reading Chapter 1: Origin and Landscape - A. The Cosmic & the Microcosm, Chapter 2: Origin and Landscape - B. The Group of the Higher Cultures, and Chapter 3: Origin and Landscape - C. The Relations Between the Cultures. If you're reading the Arktos Edition (which I recommend everyone do), this will be around 105 pages.

Here is a free PDF version of the text: Ta-da. Volume 2 starts on page 461 of the PDF.
It's the same translation from Charles Francis Atkinson across the board so, ultimately, it does not matter whether you proceed via the PDF or the printed copy from Arktos or any of the other sellers on Amazon. Work with whatever works with you.

As always, if you're unable to complete the reading prior to our meeting, no worries - it's dense and semi-lengthy, so we're just happy to have you and welcome whatever insights, critiques, questions, etc. you may have based on what you were able to read. That said, given that this is the second volume of a ~1300 page text, at least bother to read the Wikipedia before deciding to come yap with us.

For those who have missed the first five sessions, I've been working needlessly hard on compiling a (currently) 100-page Spenglerian glossary that provides definitions for most of what has been covered so far. I'll provide an updated version closer to the meeting, but in the meantime, you can access it here: link link link. Let me know if you have issues.

We will be meeting in the Ace Hotel lobby on W 29th. There is coffee, breakfast, and booze. Message me the day of if you can't find us. We usually sit toward the back of the lobby next to the bar.

As always, this group is open to newcomers to Spengler, novices of philosophy, history, aesthetics, etc., ragamuffins, ne'er-do-wells, urchins of all sorts, etc. All insights are encouraged, just be somewhat sensible and all the way cool. Ain't no fun to be found in nodding your head along with a thinker for a hundred pages - strive to disagree, with decency.

Alright, looking forward to it - again, reach out to me with any questions or concerns in the meantime.

Looking forward,

Hamp