The Decline of Civilization Between Moral Dissolution and the End of History: A Comparative Study of Ibn Miskawayh and Spengler

Abstract

This study offers a profound philosophical and historical endeavor to compare two major worldviews on the decline of civilizations: the voluntaristic moral theory of Ibn Miskawayh and the deterministic organic theory of Oswald Spengler. The investigation begins in the first section with a general conceptual framework to define power and social dynamics. The second section sheds light on how, according to Miskawayh, inner human decay and the dominance of base desires such as ignorance and tyranny lead to the destruction of the psychological architecture and the subsequent disintegration of social order. This perspective stems from his absolute belief in human free will and the capacity for reform through reason and virtues like wisdom, courage, and justice.

Conversely, the third section explores the pessimistic philosophy of Oswald Spengler, who perceives history as a collection of living organisms with predetermined lifespans that cannot escape their inevitable destiny. For Spengler, the transition from a vibrant, spiritual "Culture" to a rigid, material "Civilization" signals the aging and ultimate death of any civilization a natural law that no human will can alter, as demonstrated in The Decline of the West*. Consequently, Spengler minimizes human agency in shaping events, arguing that historical ideas forge figures like Napoleon, rather than the other way around.
Against this backdrop, the fourth section offers a comparative and critical reading that examines the intermingling of civilizations, environmental factors, and the psychology of fear. It reveals that while both thinkers converge on the ultimate inevitability of civilizational collapse, their primary divergence lies in causality، while Miskawayh attributes decline to human reason and morality, Spengler links it directly to cosmic and natural laws. Ultimately, this study concludes that human history remains an eternal struggle, suspended between the willful reform of the inner self and the determinism of time.