What do you think?
Rate this book
Aphorisms [Gateway Edition] #6109
- GenresHistoryPhilosophy
128 pages, Paperback
147 people want to read
About the author
Oswald Spengler
84 books617 followersOswald Spengler was born in 1880 in Blankenburg (then in the Duchy of Brunswick, German Empire) at the foot of the Harz mountains, the eldest of four children, and the only boy. His family was conservative German of the petite bourgeoisie. His father, originally a mining technician, who came from a long line of mineworkers, was a post office bureaucrat. His childhood home was emotionally reserved, and the young Spengler turned to books and the great cultural personalities for succor. He had imperfect health, and suffered throughout his life from migraine headaches and from an anxiety complex.
At the age of ten, his family moved to the university city of Halle. Here Spengler received a classical education at the local Gymnasium (academically oriented secondary school), studying Greek, Latin, mathematics and natural sciences. Here, too, he developed his affinity for the arts—especially poetry, drama, and music—and came under the influence of the ideas of Goethe and Nietzsche. He even experimented with a few artistic creations, some of which still survive.
After his father's death in 1901 Spengler attended several universities (Munich, Berlin, and Halle) as a private scholar, taking courses in a wide range of subjects: history, philosophy, mathematics, natural science, literature, the classics, music, and fine arts. His private studies were undirected. In 1903, he failed his doctoral thesis on Heraclitus because of insufficient references, which effectively ended his chances of an academic career. In 1904 he received his Ph.D., and in 1905 suffered a nervous breakdown.
Scholars[which?] remark that his life seemed rather uneventful. He briefly served as a teacher in Saarbrücken and then in Düsseldorf. From 1908 to 1911 he worked at a grammar school (Realgymnasium) in Hamburg, where he taught science, German history, and mathematics.
In 1911, following his mother's death, he moved to Munich, where he would live until his death in 1936. He lived as a cloistered scholar, supported by his modest inheritance. Spengler survived on very limited means and was marked by loneliness. He owned no books, and took jobs as a tutor or wrote for magazines to earn additional income.
He began work on the first volume of Decline of the West intending at first to focus on Germany within Europe, but the Agadir Crisis affected him deeply, and he widened the scope of his study. Spengler was inspired by Otto Seeck's work The Decline of Antiquity in naming his own effort. The book was completed in 1914, but publishing was delayed by World War I. Due to a congenital heart problem, he was not called up for military service. During the war, however, his inheritance was largely useless because it was invested overseas; thus Spengler lived in genuine poverty for this period.
At the age of ten, his family moved to the university city of Halle. Here Spengler received a classical education at the local Gymnasium (academically oriented secondary school), studying Greek, Latin, mathematics and natural sciences. Here, too, he developed his affinity for the arts—especially poetry, drama, and music—and came under the influence of the ideas of Goethe and Nietzsche. He even experimented with a few artistic creations, some of which still survive.
After his father's death in 1901 Spengler attended several universities (Munich, Berlin, and Halle) as a private scholar, taking courses in a wide range of subjects: history, philosophy, mathematics, natural science, literature, the classics, music, and fine arts. His private studies were undirected. In 1903, he failed his doctoral thesis on Heraclitus because of insufficient references, which effectively ended his chances of an academic career. In 1904 he received his Ph.D., and in 1905 suffered a nervous breakdown.
Scholars[which?] remark that his life seemed rather uneventful. He briefly served as a teacher in Saarbrücken and then in Düsseldorf. From 1908 to 1911 he worked at a grammar school (Realgymnasium) in Hamburg, where he taught science, German history, and mathematics.
In 1911, following his mother's death, he moved to Munich, where he would live until his death in 1936. He lived as a cloistered scholar, supported by his modest inheritance. Spengler survived on very limited means and was marked by loneliness. He owned no books, and took jobs as a tutor or wrote for magazines to earn additional income.
He began work on the first volume of Decline of the West intending at first to focus on Germany within Europe, but the Agadir Crisis affected him deeply, and he widened the scope of his study. Spengler was inspired by Otto Seeck's work The Decline of Antiquity in naming his own effort. The book was completed in 1914, but publishing was delayed by World War I. Due to a congenital heart problem, he was not called up for military service. During the war, however, his inheritance was largely useless because it was invested overseas; thus Spengler lived in genuine poverty for this period.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
April 8, 2010
A very short but excellent collection of aphorisms written by German philosopher Oswald Spengler. If this book weren't so hard-to-find and pricey for it's small size, it would be the ideal introduction to the brilliant mind of Spengler. "Aphorisms" features excerpts from all of Spengler's works, including many writings from untranslated Spengler works, making this little book an invaluable item for students of Oswald Spengler. It amazes me that for such a great mind as Oswald Spengler, it is very hard to find his works. It is as if modern day scholars, academia, and the publishing companies want nothing to do with (and surely they don't) his still highly relevant theories and predictions. In fact, many of the things Spengler said are more relevant today than when they were written close to a century ago. Here are a couple words of wisdom from Herr Döktor Spengler: "Pacifism means letting the non-pacifists have control ... Pacifism will remain an ideal, war a fact. If the white races are resolved never to wage war again, the colored will act differently and become rulers of the world." "The common man wants nothing of life but health, longevity, amusement, comfort -- "happiness." He who does not despise this should turn his eyes from world history, for it contains nothing of the sort. The best that history has created is great suffering." "The question of whether world peace will ever be possible can only be answered by someone familiar with world history. To be familiar with world history means, however, to know human beings as they have been and always will be. There is a vast difference, which most people will never comprehend, between viewing future history as it will be and viewing it as one might like it to be. Peace is a desire, war is a fact; and history has never paid heed to human desires and ideals ..." I know this is a book I will keep close by and pickup every day or two for a couple quick words of unrelenting wisdom...
December 13, 2017
I read this in 2 sittings. It is a collection of short bits from all his writings, both published and some unpublished. Spengler's big book was "Decline of the West" in 2 volumes, published in 1919, just after WWI. It was a popular best-seller, but not respected much by the critics. Still, it greatly influenced Wittgenstein, in ways that I have written about in Wittgenstein in Exile. Spengler's writings ended up being censured by the Nazis in the 1930's. This little collection was compiled by Spengler's niece in 1941, and it felt like she was trying to rehabilitate Spengler's reputation among the Nazis (especially the long sections on "State, "Leadership," "Classes and Professions," and "Ownership"). It portrays a cynical advocate of totalitarian thinking. And it could also serve as an apology for Trumpism.
Some passages that caught my attention:
#8: Free will is a feeling, not a fact.
#46: To believe in something and to conceptualize it are antithetical. He who defines God is already an atheist. So is he who proves His existence.
#92: Only the awareness of "you" makes possible the recognition of an "I." Thus the "I" indicates that a bridge to another human being is available.
#127: "Empires perish, a good verse lives on," said W. von Humboldt on the battlefield of Waterloo.
#170: To express a new philosophical idea is extremely difficult; this is one of the instances in which we notice that language itself contains philosophical presuppositions.
#171: Language is philosophy. When the mind puts into words what it sees, by that very fact it unconsciously introduces metaphysics.
#317: People no longer know how to read. Still extant in Goethe's time, the art of reading has died out. Most readers cheapen the books they read by skimming them. (He caught me here, since I had just been skimming the long chapters mentioned above!)
Some passages that caught my attention:
#8: Free will is a feeling, not a fact.
#46: To believe in something and to conceptualize it are antithetical. He who defines God is already an atheist. So is he who proves His existence.
#92: Only the awareness of "you" makes possible the recognition of an "I." Thus the "I" indicates that a bridge to another human being is available.
#127: "Empires perish, a good verse lives on," said W. von Humboldt on the battlefield of Waterloo.
#170: To express a new philosophical idea is extremely difficult; this is one of the instances in which we notice that language itself contains philosophical presuppositions.
#171: Language is philosophy. When the mind puts into words what it sees, by that very fact it unconsciously introduces metaphysics.
#317: People no longer know how to read. Still extant in Goethe's time, the art of reading has died out. Most readers cheapen the books they read by skimming them. (He caught me here, since I had just been skimming the long chapters mentioned above!)
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews