ABSTRACT
The approaching end of the twentieth century provokes speculation about long-term currents of history. With the spread of industrialisation beyond the confines of the Atlantic economies, the decline of the West, proclaimed by Oswald Spengler over 70 years ago, seems to have become a reality. The scientific and technological world-view which sustained the rise of the Western industrial system has also lost its hold. The words of Siegfried Giedeon, written in mid-century, have acquired a particular resonance as the century draws to its close: 'in every sphere a revolution, arising from the depths of our mind, has shattered the mechanistic conception of the world'.1
