The Oswald Spengler Society
for the Study of Humanity and World History
Conference 2020:
"From Herodotus to Spengler:
Comparing Civilisations through Time and Space"
and
Award of the "Oswald Spengler Prize" to Prof. Dr. Walter Scheidel
“From Herodotus to Spengler:
Comparing Civilisations throughout Time and Space”
12.-14.11.2020, Eifel, Germany
Organisers: David Engels, Gerd Morgenthaler, Max Otte
Provisional Programme
THURSDAY, 12.11.2020
3:00-3:30 Welcome Address
3:30-6:30 Comparatism before Spenger I
3:30-4:00: Pattern and Storytelling of the Ancient Archaiologíai. The Case of Thucydides, Diodorus and Livy
Nicoletta Bruno (online)
4:00-4:30: Bartolomé de las Casas as World Historian: The Comparative Ethnology of the Apologética historia
Víctor Zorrilla (online)
4:30-5:00: Coffee
5:00-5:30: The Seasons of the City: A Comparative Analysis of Ancient Rome
Matthew J. Mandich (online)
5:30-6:30: Discussion
6:30 Drinks
7:00 Dinner
FRIDAY, 13.11.2020
9:00-12:00 Comparatism before Spengler II
9:00-09:30: Ibn Ḫaldūn a Muslim Philosopher of History
Robert Kerr
9:30-10:00: „Das Rätsel der sogenannten ethnologischen Parallelen“. Karl Meuli and his comparative method
Carlo Ferrari (online)
10:00-10:30: Coffe
10:30-11:00: ‘The Greek door to the study of history’: Arnold J. Toynbee, classical civilisation and the 1930s international crisis
Liam Stowell (online)
11:00-12:00: Discussion
12:00-1:30: Lunch
1:30-3:00 Oswald Spengler
1:30-2:00: Inventing the Greeks: On the Function of Classical Antiquity in Spengler’s Decline of the West
Gregory Morgan Swer (online)
2:00-2:30: Comparing Civilisations in Light of Re-Writing History
Friedrich von Petersdorff
2:30-3:00: Discussion
Afternoon Activity and Award of the Second Spengler Prize to Walter Scheidel, Stanford University (online)
3:00-5:00: Afternoon Activity
5:00-6:30: Award of the Second Spengler Prize to Walter Scheidel, Stanford University (online)
5:00-5:30: Laudationes by the organisers
5:30-6:30: Award of the Prize and Speech by Walter Scheidel
6:30: Drinks
7:00: Dinner
SATURDAY, 14.11.2020
9:00-12:00 Comparative Case-Studies
9:00-9:30: Adapting Spengler for the Theatre
Anton Korenci (online)
9:30-10:00: Śāntideva and Kant: An East-West Comparative Study in Ethics
Andrei Valentin Bacrau (online)
10:00-10h30: Linking the Self with the Other: Xenophon’s Foreigners and Leadership Discourse in Athens during the Fourth Century BC
Sven Günther (online)
10:30-11:00: Coffee
11:00-12:00: Discussion
12:00-1:30: Lunch
1:30-3.00 Spengler’s Reception
1:30-2:00: Becoming a cultural pessimist: Johan Huizinga’s early critique on Oswald Spengler and his metamorphosis into a believer of the ‘Abendland’
Nora Gosselink
2:00-2:30: Oswald Spengler: Caesarism & Aesthetics
Sid Lukassen
2:30-3:00: Discussion
3:00-3:30: Coffee
3:30-6:30 Spengler Today
3:30-4:00: The Fourth Crisis of Monotheism. The issue behind Islam-West conflict.
Ahmed Ghazali
4:00-4:30: Does the inner logic of the Faustian Culture lead to mass immigration as its suicidal end stage?
Christoph Trautner
4:30-5:00: Coffee
5:00-5:30: Mythophysics
Frol Vladimirov (online)
5:30-6:30: Discussion
6:30: Drinks
7:00: Dinner
Spengler Prize 2020
The Spengler Prize 2020 will be awarded to Prof. Dr. Walter Scheidel (University of Stanford), one of the most well-known pioneers of cultural comparatism.
Click HERE to access Prof. Scheidel's website.
Important Announcement: Because of the trave restrictions to the US, the conference
"From Herodotus to Spengler: Comparing Civilisations throughout Time and Space”.
will be organised in a hybrid format, the European participants meeting in the German Eifel, while those from abroad will participate digitally.
Call for Papers (deadline: 10.3.2020)
“From Herodotus to Spengler:
Comparing Civilisations throughout Time and Space”
13.-14.11.2020, Palo Alto / Stanford, CA
From 13th-14th November 2020, the “Oswald Spengler Society” will organise a conference on the subject:
“From Herodotus to Spengler:
Comparing Civilisations throughout Time and Space”.
The conference will take place in Palo Alto, CA and at Stanford University. Everyone interested in participating is warmly invited to submit a short abstract of her/his intended paper as well as a CV by email until the 10th march. The organisers will then review the submissions and inform all candidates about the status of their proposal.
As in 2018, the “Spengler Conference” will be linked to the official award of the 2020 “Spengler Prize” whose recipient will be made public in due cause. In 2018, the prize was awarded to the well-known French novelist Michel Houellebecq who received the prize during a public ceremony in Brussels.
The final financial plan of the conference will depend on the number and provenance of speakers; however, it is intended to support at least partl of the costs of those speakers still in their formative years or subject to special financial or professional hardships.
