the fundamental idea of western/germanic civilization, according to spengler, is the infinite heaven above, which comes from germanic geographic in the teutonic forests and looking above at the forest canopy. hence sacred trees. this is why the western dream has always been to reach the stars. this is whey gothic architecture, the first fully expressed western architecture, thrusts upward toward heaven in its great spires. the fundamental idea of the russian culture, again rooted in russia's geography, is not the linear world above us, but the "endless flat plain" like one would see in russia. russia copied western and architecture somewhat, but subconsciously denied the "upthrust" of the spires of the churches, instead opting for onion-shaped domes that, instinctively, just make more sense to them, as the heavens are not what the russian soul is after. russia is an endless flat plain and the consummate land empire. that idea appeals to the russian character in its very roots. this idea will be expressed in future russian mathematical breakthroughs even, just as the infinitesimal calculus, which is the paradigmatic mathematical formulation of western civilization because it reaches for the limitless, was the paradigmatic breakthrough of western mathematical thought.
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