ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines the Spengler's main theses in Decline. Despite his ponderous writing and the extreme unconventionality of Decline in both form and substance, the main tenets of Spenglerian thought are fairly clear. The chapter introduces some basic elements of Spenglerian thought and to offer needed background for further discussions. It discusses the nature of Spengler's actual influence on Wittgenstein and focuses upon the details of these three features. Spengler represents the decline of a culture into a civilization, both as an exhaustion of the culture's artistic forms and possibilities and as the development of new tendencies. The latter include the ascendancy of science, technology, industry, and a new all-consuming focus on economic and political power on the global scale. The chapter shows that some of the prominent features of Wittgenstein's mature philosophy can be seen as a detailed working out of powerfully stated but underdeveloped ideas of Spengler that held great appeal for Wittgenstein as he returned to philosophy.
