Oswald Spengler

The Interpretation of Western Culture

Abstract

Every culture-soul has a unique form, which happens to be valid to that culture and understood by its individual members. Soul-image of a classical man is quite different from that of the Faustian man or Western man. Similarly, the soul-image of the Magian man is different and unique to his peculiar physico–psychic experiences. Moreover, when one tries to comprehend the ‘soul’ of other cultures, in Spengler’s analysis, he is attempting nothing but displaying an understanding of his ‘own soul-image.’ In his opinion the ‘soul-dynamic’ of the Faustian culture is essentially different from the ‘spiritual static,’ of the classical, ‘Apollonian culture’. He points out that, ‘the hallmark of the Magian-soul is a strict dualism of two mysterious substances, spirit and soul. Spengler therefore, reflects that the dynamical soul of western culture has led it to endless formations and transformations, not only in art, politics, economics, diplomacy but also in physics, mathematics and exact science. This historical integration of Faustian soul, Spengler, observes, awaits its fulfillment in the ‘body’ of Western culture and may also constitute its ‘legacy’ to the cultures that should follow the footsteps of the historical drama of grand culture-form of the Western Faustian reason. He has also propounded another very important idea, which he terms as ‘historical pseudomorphosis’. He postulates with utmost certainty that the ‘Faustian soul’ is inherently at variance with the ‘Magian soul’ and its cultureforms though at certain points they may converge but in general outlook, they diverge, disagree and differ, because of their essentially different soul-structure and the weltanschauung which rules the categories of their cognition and world-outlook.