ABSTRACT
A more philosophical approach to technological changes has been initiated by the studies of Oswald Spengler of Munich (1880-1936). His treatise on ‘Cultural cycles of civilizations’, in which he described the cycles in the development of civilizations – blossoming, maturity and decay – inspired the British historian Arnold Joseph Toynbee (1889-1975) to write his ‘A study of history’ in which he described the cycles of civilizations from their early beginnings to the present. The motivations for changes were challenge and response. Toynbee’s ideas affected the studies of Pitirim Alexandrovich Sorokin (1889-1968), a Harvard professor on ‘social and cultural dynamics’.
