On Laws of History, and Other Faustian Fictions: A Fictionalist Interpretation of Spengler's The Decline of the West.

Most interpretations of Oswald Spengler's The Decline of the West offer a relativist or positivist reading of his philosophy of history, with the latter being the most common. This paper argues that any positivist account of Spengler's philosophy of history is untenable, and that only a relativist interpretation is plausible. It differs from standard arguments for the relativist interpretation by arguing that Spengler's philosophy be understood as a form of fictionalism. However, rather than dismissing the positivistic elements of his philosophy of history, it argues that they form a separate (albeit fictional) philosophy of history within his relativist philosophy designed to serve a heuristic purpose. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]