ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book attempts to give a deeper understanding of Wittgenstein's remark and seeks to establish that Wittgenstein was giving partial expression to a viewpoint on the civilization of his time. It discusses Wittgenstein's frank indication that Spengler had been an influence on him and that many of his own ideas had been re-workings of some of Spengler's seminal insights. The book offers a preliminary overview of Spengler's main theses and reviews a number of conjectures that have been made by prominent philosophers as to what aspects of Wittgenstein's explicit later philosophical thought were influenced by Spengler. It takes up the all-important subject of Spengler's prescription for philosophy in a time of cultural decline. The book considers Wittgenstein's view of religious expression and outlines Wittgenstein's early and later views on the subject.
