Spenglerův význam ve Wittgensteinově filosofii

The article attempts to capture the nature of Wittgenstein’s appreciation of Oswald Spengler. Spengler’s name is found on a list of personalities, compiled by Wittgenstein himself in 1931, who had been a significant influence on him. The nature of Spengler’s influence, however, remains unclear. The text chiefly refutes two widespread mistakes on this point. According to the first of them, Wittgenstein basically adopted a Spenglerian orientation (“Spenglerian valence”), namely pessimism towards contemporary civilization, and saw himself as a Spenglerian philosopher of culture. William DeAngelis tried to distinguish this personal stance from Wittgenstein’s strictly philosophical focus. The second mistake lies in the search for common doctrinal elements in both thinkers. Wittgenstein did not understand these stated influences in this way, which is, for that matter, also evident from his general attitude towards theorizing in philosophy. Despite these reservations, however, Wittgenstein associated Spengler with central points of his later philosophy such as family resemblance, especially with regard to rule following, and there, above all, where the rule is fixed by a model exemplar. Nevertheless, Spengler remained for Wittgenstein only an interesting observed instance, not an authority worthy of following.