Civilizations and value 9 ( introvert model and extrovert model )

There are reasons to think that Toynbee and Spengler need to be reevaluated. It is important that these two were born out of the great destruction of World War I and World War II . The world is about to enter similar waters of destruction once again, but it seems that little is understood about what these two men were feeling during this tense situation. At the time, there may have been a strong tendency to be seen as a downfallist . However, in modern times, it may be better to reinterpret these two as futurists . How are the values that define and determine the future formed? Two styles were offered. Toynbee 's theory of extroversion and Spengler's theory of introversion each followed different developments* . Another aspect that cannot be ignored is that these two intuitions were achieved through honed sensibilities * during the extreme tensions of wartime .

 

 *Different development

For Toynbee , it would be fair to say that external influences on civilization were a more important factor in the formation of values . There is a challenge ( I divide it into external forces and environmental forces ) as a force that activates civilization , and this influences the ability to self-determine and fight back . A creative leader emerges and the masses begin to imitate him, but over time the creative leader gradually deteriorates and becomes dominant, and in this process, empires and fighting groups emerge. In contrast, Spengler argued that the culture that naturally arose from rural areas would become civilization as cities developed, and that humans would lose their culture, become rootless, become empires, and eventually collapse.

In his later years, Toynbee began to mention the importance of world religions. On the other hand, in his later years, Spengler began to think about what the German state and society should be like . As a result, he began to think about Prussian socialism . In a sense, this can be said to be a product of introverted thinking . It's socialism that takes advantage of Germany 's efficient bureaucracy, and it may be reminiscent of current China in the 2020s . Spengler believed that socialism and scientific bureaucracy, rather than markets or capitalism, would develop nations.

 

*Sensitivity honed under stress

In wartime, it was difficult to know whether to win or lose, and whose values would prevail, making it difficult to know the way out. For this reason, many historical and cultural works seem to have been supported by deep thought. Around the time of World War II, Braudel was writing ``Mediterranean'' and Sartre was writing ``Being and Nothingness.'' It is also interesting that all of them were French people who were occupied by Germany. This can also be said of Japanese writers before and after the GHQ rule.

 

 

2 Life and destiny that integrate challenge and response

 

I have looked at Toynbee, an extrovert, and Spengler, an introvert, with reference to Jung's classification based on psychological posture . It may be necessary to combine these ideas , but even if you try to combine these two abstractly , it doesn't seem to make much sense , and it probably won't be very convincing . However, even if we lean toward one or the other, it is insufficient*, so we would like to use both viewpoints as a minimum . Try using these as tools to actually explain the situation.

 

In addition, the examples of culture, art, science, mathematics, and history that Spengler cited in his discussion of the decline of the West seem to be extremely difficult for non-Westerners to evaluate in order to explain the theory of internal formation of values.  For this reason, I would like to consider Japan's own culture, rather than Spengler's example, as the material for internal formation theory. With this in mind to some extent, I would like to think about Japan's future as a theme .

 

 ※insufficient

If we concentrate too much on introverted values, we will become too fixated on the phenomena of life and see value only in terms of fate. However, it seems necessary as a methodology to consider a model that is not influenced by external factors. By consciously choosing a closed model, you can think purely about the introvert model. This can be said to be the significance of observing life phenomena in a closed civilization.

 

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