Philosophy of Society

Philosophy of History

Civilizational Concept of History

The civilizational approach to history, shaped by the works of the German Oswald Spengler and the English Arnold Toynbee, views human history as a succession of distinct cultures and civilizations, each evolving through a series of stages. Oswald Arnold Gottfried Spengler (1880-1936), in his seminal work "The Decline of the West" (1918-1922), posited that human culture is not a monolithic process but comprises diverse, separate cultures. Spengler identified eight major cultures: Egyptian, Indian, Babylonian, Chinese, Greco-Roman (Apollonian), Byzantine-Arabian, Western European (Faustian), and Maya. Each culture constitutes a unique world, and a representative of one culture can never fully comprehend another. To truly understand a culture, one must belong to it. Spengler argued that each culture undergoes a uniform developmental trajectory: an inconspicuous birth, gradual development, brilliant rise, and eventual decline. The period of cultural zenith, which he termed civilization, is when a culture reaches its peak but simultaneously degenerates, as the very forces that propelled its growth wane, devotion and self-sacrifice diminish, morality degrades, and values become materialized. According to Spengler, European culture has reached the stage of civilization and thus entered its period of decline.

Arnold Joseph Toynbee (1889-1975), while significantly modifying Spengler's ideas, viewed civilization as a distinct cultural-historical entity that may sometimes coincide with the chronological and geographical boundaries of a state (e.g., Egypt) or people (e.g., Minoan) but can also span multiple peoples and continents (e.g., Western). The core characteristics of civilization are religion and territory: within a civilization, a dominant religion prevails, and the civilization has a more or less defined territorial expanse. Civilizations emerge and develop, though not all reach a peak. While Spengler believed that each culture experiences a peak, Toynbee argued that the peak is a response to challenges. A civilization may face threats capable of destroying it. When a civilization encounters such threats, it requires its elite minority to unite and confront these risks. If the elite can coalesce, lead the masses, and overcome the challenges, the civilization not only survives but thrives. In other words, the flourishing of civilization is a decisive and successful response by the elite minority to the challenges it faces. Thus, the fate of a civilization hinges not on the masses but on the elite. Civilizations that confront and overcome challenges are deemed successful. Toynbee identified 21 such civilizations, noting that some civilizations, despite emerging, failed to develop because their elites could not meet the challenges. Others did not encounter significant challenges, and their elites lacked the impetus to unite and express themselves. Each civilization is a distinct world with its own religion, culture, values, and history.