JSPES, Vol. 44, No. 1-2 (Spring-Summer 2019)
pp. 141-160

Spengler, Epigenetics, and the Idea of ‘Race’

K R Bolton
Athens Institute for Education and Research

Oswald Spengler affronts both the positivism of Liberalism and Marxism, which are based on a lineal “march of history” from “primitive to modern,” ending in a utopian “end of history,” at which humanity has reached its apex of striving, and the “Right,’ from which Spengler himself emerged, which has nevertheless often rejected his non-zoological definitions of “race.” Both concepts, whether of “Right” or Left” Spengler saw as hangovers of 19th century materialism, the zeitgeist which was primarily represented by England. Hence, Marxism for example was just as much a product of that zeitgeist as the Manchester School of Free Trade, and Darwinism. Indeed, these doctrines were often conflated (Social Darwinism), while Darwinism was brought to Germany by Haeckel and largely displaced German Idealism in the name of science.