Levels of civilization rise and fall in cycles tied to each civilization’s life phase

Evidence

When civilizations first emerge, their people are usually vigorous, dynamic, brutal, mobile, and expansionist. They are relatively unCivilized. As the civilization evolves it becomes more settled and develops the techniques and skills that make it more Civilized. As the competition among its constituent elements tapers off and a universal state emerges, the civilization reaches its highest level of Civilization, its “golden age,” with a flowering of morality, art, literature, philosophy, technology, and martial, economic, and political competence. As it goes into decay as a civilization, its level of Civilization also declines until it disappears under the onslaught of a different surging civilization with a lower level of Civilization. — Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the…, 899

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines Civilization (capital C) as a developmental phase tied to a civilization’s evolution rather than a fixed moral state — early civilizations are vigorous but brutal, later ones refined but decaying.
• XREF: Connects to Spengler’s and Toynbee’s organic cycles of civilizational rise and decline.