From Periodic Decline to Permanent Rebirth: Alexander Raven Thomson on Civilization, Pathology, and Violence

Philosophical Journal of Conflict and Violence 6 (2):37-52 (2022)
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Abstract

Alexander Raven Thomson was a British fascist philosopher, active from 1932 to 1955. I outline Thomson’s Spenglerian views on civilization and decline. I argue that Thomson in his first book is an orthodox Spenglerian who accepts that decline is inevitable and thinks that it is morally required to destroy civilization in its final stages. I argue that this suffers from conceptual issues which may have caused Thomson’s change to a revised form of Spenglerianism, which is more authentically fascist. This authentically fascist view is then seen to fall prey into the problem inherent in the very idea of permanent rebirth.

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Rory Lawrence Phillips
University College London

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References found in this work

Historical inevitability.Isaiah Berlin - 1955 - New York,: Oxford University Press.
“Consecration to Culture”: Nietzsche on Slavery and Human Dignity.Andrew Huddleston - 2014 - Journal of the History of Philosophy 52 (1):135-160.
Oswald Spengler, Technology, and Human Nature.Ian James Kidd - 2012 - The European Legacy 17 (1):19 - 31.
Ὦ φλτατ'.D. B. Gregor - 1957 - The Classical Review 7 (01):14-15.
The Revolt Against Reason: Oswald Spengler and Violence as Cultural Preservative.Gregory Swer - 2019 - Philosophical Journal of Conflict and Violence 4 (1):123-148.

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