DISSERTATION - Cities and Civilisation: An Analysis of Oswald Spengler’s Commentary On the Greek Polis
Abstract and Contents only
Abstract
This dissertation explores Oswald Spengler’s morphology of history from the Decline of the West as it applies to the history of the ancient Greek city-state across the three stages of history he identified: the Early Period (c. 1100 – 650 BC), the Late Period (c. 650 – 350 BC), and the Civilisation Period (c.350 – 31 BC). Spengler argued that each of his identified cultures possessed a distinctive ‘prime symbol’. In Ancient Greece’s case, ‘Apollinian culture’ was defined by the idea of the bounded, perfected body (soma) and the polis is the embodiment of this symbol in political and national identity terms. This dissertation tests this claim against specialist historiography in nine case-studies and asks how Spengler’s morphology interacts with scholarship today.
Chapter 1 explores the formation of the polis through the Dark Ages, the process of synoecism, and the social role of basileoi and oligarchies. Chapter 2 explores the internal and external dynamics of Poleis during the Late period, exploring Spengler’s definitions of Tyranny, Democracy, and his articulation of intercity relations. Chapter 3 addresses the Civilisation period: the transformation of polis into Hellenistic kingdoms, the “Second Tyrannis” of the Diadochi and Dionysius of Syracuse, and Spengler’s commentary on the Hellenistic cosmopolis.
This dissertation concludes that Spengler provides additional explanatory power for the development of Greek political culture where material scholarship reaches limitations, while meeting its own limits when it comes face to face with particular counter evidence that reveals issues with morphology as a whole in dealing with contradictory information, and in the conflation of power dynamics with the existence of a collective soul.
Contents
1 The Early Period, c. 1100 – 650 BC.
1.1 The Dark Ages, c. 1100 – 900 BC.
1.2 Synoecism and the Formation of the Polis c.800 – 650 BC.
1.3 The Basileoi and the Decline of Kingship, c. 900 – 700 BC.
1.4 Conclusion.
2 The Late Period, c. 650 – 350 BC.
2.1 The Meaning of Tyranny, c.650 – 500 BC.
2.2 The Meaning of Democracy, c.500 – 400 BC.
2.3 The Polis as a Unit of International Affairs, c.500 - 400 BC.
2.4 Conclusion.
3 The Civilisation Period, c. 350 – 31 BC.
3.1 The Polis in the age of the Hellenistic Kingdoms, c.338 – 100 BC.
3.2 The ‘Second Tyrannis’, c. 323 – 100 BC.
3.3 The Cosmopolis, c. 333 – 31 BC.
3.4 Conclusion.
4 Synthesis and Conclusion.
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