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Oswald Spengler
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Man and Technics: A Contribution to a Philosophy of Life Second Edition, Kindle Edition

by Oswald Spengler (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.6 out of 5 stars 293 ratings
In this new and revised edition of Oswald Spengler’s classic, Man and Technics, Spengler makes a number of predictions that today, more than eighty years after the book was first published, have turned out to be remarkably accurate. Spengler predicted that industrialisation would lead to serious environmental problems and that countless species would become extinct. He also predicted that labour from Third World countries would increasingly outcompete Western workers by doing the same work for much lower wages, and that industrial production would therefore move to other parts of the world, such as East Asia, India, and South America.

According to Spengler, technology has not only made it possible for man to harness the forces of nature; it has also alienated him from nature. Modern technology now dominates our culture instead of that which is natural and organic. After having made himself the master of nature, man has himself become technology’s slave. ‘The victor, crashed, is dragged to death by the team’, Spengler summarises.

Finally, Spengler foresaw that Western man would eventually grow weary of his increasingly artificial lifestyle and begin to hate the civilisation he himself created. There is no way out of this conundrum as the unrelenting progress of technological development cannot be halted. The current high-tech culture of the West is therefore doomed, destined to be consumed from within and destroyed. A time will come, Spengler writes, when our giant cities and skyscrapers have fallen in ruins and lie forgotten ‘just like the palaces of old Memphis and Babylon’. It remains to be seen if this last, and most dire, of Spengler’s prophecies will also come true.

The German historian and philosopher Oswald Spengler (1880–1936) was one of the most influential thinkers of the twentieth century. In 1904 he was awarded a doctorate from the University of Halle for a dissertation on the philosophy of Heraclitus. Spengler then left the university to work as a teacher at a gymnasium school in Hamburg. After having received a small inheritance from his mother in 1911, Spengler quit his position as a teacher, moved to Munich, and started out on a new career as a writer. His breakthrough came in 1918 when the first volume of his magnum opus The Decline of the West was published.

In The Decline of the West, Spengler argues that civilisations inevitably go through a series of cycles of rise and decline. They are born, bloom, and then fade away as if they were living entities. According to Spengler, Western civilisation has entered its final, declining phase and is slowly dying. The Decline of the West became a bestseller and was widely discussed in intellectual and academic circles.

The Decline of the West made Spengler a household name. He became one of the leading figures of the so-called ‘Conservative Revolution’ — an intellectual movement in Weimar Germany that sought to rebuild the German nation based on conservative synthesis of nationalist, conservative, and socialist principles following the fall of the Hohenzollern empire, calling for a ‘third way’ between liberal democracy and Communism. After the Nazis’ ascension to power in 1933, Spengler became increasingly marginalised. His last major work, The Hour of Decision, was banned by the Nazi censors due to its criticisms of certain aspects of Nazi ideology. Three years later Spengler passed away from natural causes at his home in Munich.
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  1. Edition
    Second
  2. Accessibility
    Learn more
  3. Publication date
    February 14, 2015
  4. Language
    English
  5. File size
    1.7 MB
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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Oswald Spengler (1880-1936) was a controversial German philosopher and historian. With his unique insights, he influenced the modern fields of sociobiology and evolutionary anthropology. Legend Books has previously published the first English translation of Spengler's Early Days of World History, as well as translations of The Hour of Decision and Prussianism and Socialism.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00TNP3CW6
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Arktos
  • Accessibility ‏ : ‎ Learn more
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ February 14, 2015
  • Edition ‏ : ‎ Second
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 1.7 MB
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 86 pages
  • Page Flip ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.6 out of 5 stars 293 ratings

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Oswald Spengler

Oswald Spengler

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Oswald Spengler (1880–1936) was a philosopher of history who is regarded as one of the principal figures of the Conservative Revolution in the Weimar Republic. His most important work was his two-volume 1918/23 book The Decline of the West, in which he theorised that all civilisations go through an inevitable cycle of rise and fall, with the West currently entering its declining period. The book went on to be immensely influential throughout the world. He saw a distinction between what he termed ‘Prussian socialism’ and Marxism. Although a nationalist, he was sceptical of the Nazis when they came to power, disagreeing particularly with their racial policies. In 1933, he was granted membership in the Senate of the German Academy. Arktos has issued reprints of his books Man and Technics, Prussianism and Socialism and The Hour of Decision in different languages.

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4.6 out of 5 stars
293 global ratings

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Customers find the book to be a good read and appreciate its insightful content, particularly as a brilliant introduction to Spengler's work.

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4 customers mention "Readability"4 positive0 negative

Customers find the book readable, with one noting its powerful writing style and another mentioning it makes them want to explore more philosophy.

"Great book for those digging for greater truths in life (especially modern life, and especially if you are an engineer)...." Read more

"Great translation, excellent quality binding and cover. Fantastic book." Read more

"This is a must read for anyone interested in critically examining modern humanity's relationship with industrial technology, and our looming..." Read more

"A very good read." Read more

3 customers mention "Insight"3 positive0 negative

Customers find the book insightful, with several noting it serves as a brilliant introduction to Spengler's work, and one customer describing it as an honest attempt at objective historical theoretical literature.

"Brilliant introduction to Spengler's work...." Read more

"Insightful and an honest attempt at objective historical theoretical literature." Read more

"INFORMATIVE!..." Read more

Top reviews from the United States

  • Valeriy N.
    5.0 out of 5 stars Incredible book that makes you want to read more philisophy
    Reviewed in the United States on June 29, 2021
    Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
    Great book for those digging for greater truths in life (especially modern life, and especially if you are an engineer). I recommend getting the Kindle version, I got paperback because I wasn't sure what to expect. Note that the cover does have Nazi-looking symbols, and the guy who wrote it lived through and survived Nazi Germany (being very much a product of his time), so it's easy to take it out of context and make it look inappropriate (both some stuff he says and the cover appearance). Another good reason to get a Kindle version :)
    12 people found this helpful
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  • N
    5.0 out of 5 stars Great translation
    Reviewed in the United States on August 7, 2023
    Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase
    Great translation, excellent quality binding and cover. Fantastic book.
    One person found this helpful
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  • Kindle Customer
    5.0 out of 5 stars Very Good
    Reviewed in the United States on June 24, 2020
    Format: KindleVerified Purchase
    The Kindle addition is very well made and presented. The words are even more relevant today than when they were written. I recommend this to anyone interested in the course of modern history
    9 people found this helpful
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  • JD O'Guinn
    4.0 out of 5 stars Four Stars
    Reviewed in the United States on May 26, 2016
    Format: KindleVerified Purchase
    You can't sing it with anything from Der Ring des Nibelungen.
    9 people found this helpful
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  • Ryan Harvey
    5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant introduction to Spengler's work
    Reviewed in the United States on July 9, 2018
    Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
    Brilliant introduction to Spengler's work. Highly recommended for basically anyone interested in politics, but especially for those who are interested in things as they are rather than as they ought to be.
    19 people found this helpful
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  • Jim
    5.0 out of 5 stars Must Read
    Reviewed in the United States on November 22, 2018
    Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
    This is a must read for anyone interested in critically examining modern humanity's relationship with industrial technology, and our looming environmental future. Concise and powerful writing.
    7 people found this helpful
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  • MooreNoLess
    5.0 out of 5 stars INFORMATIVE!
    Reviewed in the United States on March 11, 2016
    Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
    A very good read.
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  • Josh
    3.0 out of 5 stars Meh edition and was disappointed by content
    Reviewed in the United States on October 6, 2022
    Verified Purchase
    The printing looks cheap; text feels comically large in addition to the generous margins on pretty crappy paper imo. I'd be more disappointed in the edition if I had enjoyed the content more but tbh Spengler kind of felt shallow. Maybe reading Decline of the West would have colored my opinion differently, but by itself I didn't feel I got a lot out of it.

    All that said, it's a pretty cheap book price-wise so I can't be too disappointed.
    2 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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  • David
    5.0 out of 5 stars Buy this book
    Reviewed in Canada on February 1, 2021
    Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
    This is a great introduction to Spengler, before reading Decline. I read this book in about 2 days. it is very brief and to the point. Anyone into evolutionary models will love this book. It gives the classical Darwinist a lot to digest, and poses some questions that cannot be ignored. Man is not a thing becoming but a thing become
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  • into_mg
    5.0 out of 5 stars Philosophycal definition of "technics".
    Reviewed in Brazil on August 9, 2024
    Format: KindleVerified Purchase
    Spengler was an interesting philosopher, specially if we consider solely his writings. He noticed brilliantly how important technology is nowadays and put forward an interesting definition for it. Further, he made interesting forecasts that were proved right until now.
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  • DAVE EDWARDS
    5.0 out of 5 stars Necessary reading
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 6, 2024
    Format: KindleVerified Purchase
    Spengler may not be popular amongst modern academics, due to his "priblematic", but Blunt observations about civilisational decline.

    It is for precisely this reason, that academics, dependent on the continued high functioning of societal structure as it has stood, and built upon for so many centuries; should read his work instead of naively dismissing it.

    As Spengler says "optimism is cowardice", facing reality is key.
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  • Robert Ellis
    3.0 out of 5 stars Short and sweet
    Reviewed in Canada on February 7, 2023
    Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
    I appreciate the attempt to explain human nature, however I found myself in disagreement with some of his assumptions about the evolution of particular activities that smacked of the attempt to distinguish humanity from other animal life where those distinctions do not seem to be uniquely human. I also cannot allow myself to accept a proposition that insists on pathological individuation (the superman/will to power) without suggesting that the 'beast of prey' concept develops out of complex civilized society as a reaction to an unbalanced moral or intellectual paradigm, as though compassion or tolerance itself were the problem rather than what seems clear to me as the avenue of unfulfilled need driving some men to those radical or antithetical positions at the expense of a rounded or balanced formation of character.

    I see the Technics concept as helpful, and to read and hear the 'Faustian' group 15 years before its collapse in Berlin is sobering for those of us who wish to alter the political framework, reasonably and with an honest intention towards avoiding those excesses that the German mindset propagated and ultimately led to self-annihilation. I found myself making verbal corrections to a few of his statements with the reminder for myself that if we are lucky, the Germans may remain the starkest lesson for those of us in the twenty-first century to heed whilst conducting the affairs of civilization, ie. War and Peace. I hold the hope that if we can understand the German mind in its time in the World War period, we might have a chance at avoiding such a tragic fate - it is not lost on me how striking his claims are to how the twentieth century unfolded.

    The takeaway, in my estimation, is that Technics as means to the artifices we create, serve as what makes human nature so natural. I see all we create as natural because it is what we do consistently, and perhaps a reframing of Man and his Technics might be how we can address the tyrannical impulse towards technocracy - whether the rulership is via a physical or metaphysical application. Man must learn to rule himself, to find that limited sovereignty that lies within the vehicle of citizenship, and take moral action in relation to both the greater host of humanity, and that even larger environment we call Nature, the Cosmos, or God.

    Overall, at a total of 68 pages, it is a short read that introduces a conceptual narrative that may assist an open-minded reader towards qualifying their own understanding without relying on an expectation of an need for whole agreement as to the content. One should not accept or support everything one reads, but one should read broadly and deeply with the hope that their own reason will develop through the literary exercise. I gave it 3/5 simply because I do not support ethnocentric ideology, and I do not support the notion implied in savage man requiring the destruction of civil man - I imagine both exist in relationship within every person, and the potential for pathological regression or progression are two sides of the same coin that lie dormant within each person. Therefore, it is advised that we attempt to understand the precarious balance inherent within moral agency.
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  • André L. C.
    5.0 out of 5 stars Caminho para o abismo? Fim inexorável?
    Reviewed in Brazil on October 4, 2020
    Format: KindleVerified Purchase
    Como surgiu a técnica e qual o motivo da distância cada vez maior entre as pessoas?
    Aquilo que foi ou está sendo ensinado condiz com a realidade?
    O caminho para o abismo e o fim da civilização é inexorável?
    Report

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