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1

Metaphysics.

Toynbee attempted to develop a normative pattern for the evaluation of historical phenomena and for the determination of the enigma posed by the eternal recurrence of growth and decay that seems the lot of physical existence. All philosophy of history must sooner or later face the problem of what constitutes the motive-force of directed life. Spengler had opted for an organic immanence of inexorable determinism. Toynbee could not face the dilemma in this form. Life constitutes a series of challenges, the response to which represents the function of a personality and whose solution is unpredictable. Yet no mere assertion of freedom can invalidate the force of empirical data that indicates almost certain decay for each civilization that has heretofore existed in the relatively short span of historical time.

Toynbee tried to solve this paradox by considering history as the realization of a divine plan, in which "the seeds sown are separate seeds, each with its own destiny, but all of one kind, and sown by the same Sower in the hope of attaining one harvest." The divergent manifestations of growth and decay merely hide an underlying unity through which God reveals Himself to mankind. Life presents an eternal alteration of activity and

1. Toynbee's metaphysical doctrine is nowhere explicitly stated. In order to give it the most complete presentation I have utilized Dante's philosophy, which seems closest to the implied concept of Toynbee and applied it to the concept of Transfiguration which is the key of Toynbee's cosmology.

2. Toynbee op. cit. Vol. III. p. 385.

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decay, of integration and differentiation. While events seem eternally recurrent, history actually operates in the fashion of a wheel, the circular motion of which serves as the condition for progress. Through all existence winds a thread of Inertia. Yin represents a level of integration that is galvanized into activity through the dynamic process of creativity which through suffering Yang leads to a higher level of integration, back to Yin. Disintegration of civilizations becomes the condition of a higher experience, for the vision of a supra-mundane entity which is of and beyond this world, the City of God, which emerges out of the ashes of the human City of Destruction.

This is the concept of transfiguration which transforms the events of this world into incidental appearances in a divine scheme, and which considers true peace that inner state of blessedness which comes with the recognition of limits. Yet how can God's realm be in this world and not be of it? What is the relation of God's immanence to His transcendence.

Dante has poetically resolved the philosophical problems

1. Toynbee op. cit. Vol. IV. p. 34.

2. Toynbee op. cit. Vol. I. p. 196-204.

3. Toynbee op. cit. Vol. VI. p. 167.

4. Toynbee answers the problem with two similes, one geometrical on the nature of the relation of a square to the side of a plane of a cube, the other geographical based on a temporal superimposition of successive layers of settlements on the same site. Neither are completely satisfactory. The geometrical simile merely proves the feasibility of constructing such a relation, not its existence. The geographical analogy illustrates the truism that every physical object is part of a larger whole. Toynbee op. cit. Vol. VI. p. 159-162.

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His metaphysics enable Toynbee to establish a hierarchy of values on historical development. He submits the attitudes towards life which characterize a disintegrating civilization to normative criteria, validated in terms of Christian theology. In this sense the Stoics' philosophy of Detachment violates the imperative of the brotherhood of Man based on God's love. Therefore Socrates' death loses meaning since it represented a futile reaction to the schism in the Hellenic soul and attempted to transfer its field of action forward on a merely mundane plane. This, too, explains the moral sanction implicit in such statements as the "criminality of militarism", the "greater treasure rejected by the Jews", which doomed their TO ACCEPT CHRIST DOOMED THEIR CIVILIZATION. TO ACCEPT CHRIST DOOMED THEIR CIVILIZATION by its failing response.

Toynbee's metaphysical assumptions permeate his concept of a culture's growth. Primitive humanity represents a Yin state of integration, the condition precedent to a further advance in the divine scheme of things. The creative minority contains the Saints, in whose soul a spark of the divine has kindled a response and who constitute the "virtue that counsels" in Dante's terms towards the uninspired majority. Man's fall from Grace has resulted in that perversity of human nature which prevents direct illumination, forcing recourse to a mimesis doomed by its mechanicalness. At the end of this development

1. See Post.

2. Toynbee op. cit. Vol. VI. p. 132.

3. Toynbee op. cit. Vol. IV.

4. Toynbee op. cit. Vol. IV. p. 243.

5. See post for further dependence on Dante.

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His metaphysics enable Toynbee to establish a hierarchy of values in historical development. He submits the attitudes towards life which characterize a disintegrating civilization to normative criteria, validated in terms of Christian theology. In this sense the stoics' philosophy of Detachment violates the imperative of the brotherhood of Man based on God's love. Therefore Socrates' death loses meaning since it represented a futile reaction to the schism in the Hellenic soul and attempted to transfer its field of action forward on a merely mundane plane. This, too, explains the moral sanction implicit in such a statement as the "criminality of militarism", the "greater treasure rejected by the Jews", which doomed their civilization by its failing response.

Toynbee's metaphysical assumptions permeate his concept of a culture's growth. Primitive humanity represents a Yin state of integration, the condition precedent to a further advance in the divine scheme of things. The creative minority contains the Saints, in whose soul a spark of the divine has kindled a response and who constitute the "virtue that counsels" in Dante's terms towards the uninspired majority. Man's fall from Grace has resulted in that perversity of human nature which prevents direct illumination, forming recourse to a mimesis doomed by its mechanicalness. At the end of this development

1. See Post.

3. Toynbee op. cit. Vol. IV.

5. See post for further dependence in Dante.

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wave of the future. Similarly Toynbee sways uneasily between rejecting militarism for its ethical deficiency or its "suicidalness."

A normative pattern for the evaluation of laws derived empirically represents a logical inconsistency. The connection between moral action and material success can not be found in manipulative, technical laws and led Kant to the postulation of immontality. Empirical analysis compares phenomenal manifestations and seeks a recurring pattern. Value judgments concern themselves with the inner meaning, the noumena of existence, the consequence of our experience of freedom.

It is impossible to find a guarantee for the realization of religious faith in the assembly of historical data. Indeed, such a guarantee negates the merit of ethical conduct. A violator of the moral code would in this view be not a knave, but a fool. Freedom is not achieved by the mere assertion of a purposiveness that itself becomes but a manifestation of historical law, classifiable as a mechanistic technique for blessing. The salvation of souls and the growth and decay of civilizations are not connected by a causality denoted by immediate reward and punishment. The wheel of existence may utilize its circular motion to progress along virgin ground. Yet no civilization has yet succeeded in this endeavor and decay has marked their advance, even in Toynbee's terms. And so the very

1. Toynbee op. cit. Vol. IV. p. 365. See also post conclusions.

2. See post for Criterion (Chapter 2). APPENDIX A

3. See post. Ch. History and Man's Experience of Morality. (Kant)

④ See post - see the sense of Responsibility

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A normative pattern for the evaluation of laws derived empirically represents a logical inconsistency. The connection between moral action and material success can not be found in manipulative, technical laws and led Kant to the postulation of immortality. Empirical analysis compares phenomenal manifestations and seeks a recurring pattern. Value judgments concern themselves with the inner meaning, the noumena of existence, the consequence of our experience of freedom.

It is impossible to find a guarantee for the realization of religious faith in the assembly of historical data. Indeed such a guarantee negates the merit of ethical conduct. A violator of the moral code would in this view be not a knave, but a fool. Freedom is not achieved by the mere assertion of a purposiveness that itself becomes but a manifestation of historical law, classifiable as a mechanistic technique for blessing. The salvation of souls and the growth and decay of civilizations are not connected by a causality denoted by immediate reward and punishment. The wheel of existence may utilize its circular motion to progress along virgin ground. Yet no civilization has yet succeeded in this endeavor and decay has marked their advance, even in Toynbee's terms. And so the very

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The Nature and Genesis of Civilizations

In an empirical study methodology becomes a focal point.
TOYNBEE ATTEMPTS TO
THE
Toynbee utilizes a comparative approach of wide scope, that at
HIS
tempts to derive generalizations from details on the
HISTORY OK OK OK
development of twenty-one identifiable civilizations. He dis
tinguishes four types, growing, disintegrating, arrested and
abortive civilizations. Yet the tenuous basis of his philos
ophy appears at every turn, for both the criteria for identifi
cation, and the generalizations constitute metaphysical emana
tions of a theological world-view which can fit various histor
ical phenomena into its pattern only with difficulty.
REVEALS

Life, according to Toynbee, constitutes a pattern of
~~THE~~
PROCESS OF evolution in the divine scheme, of which the history of civiliza
tions represents only a minute fraction. The dynamic activity
of differentiation is put the prelude to a higher level of in-
tegration which in good time will serve as the condition for a
further advance. Thus civilizations are not an ultimate stage
of development but a species in an evolutionary process, in
which they, too, will be superseded by beings of a new and
2
higher order.

Yet what is a civilization? Toynbee answers as a first approximation that it represents an intelligible field of study.

~~THE HISTORY OF A SOCIAL EXPLOSION~~
The history of none of the component political communities can obtain meaning without reference to a larger whole. Societies,

1. For full discussion see post Conclusions.

2. Toynbee op. cit. Vol. I. p. 159.