Axial Age

Axial Age

Karl Jaspers' (1883 - 1969) The Origin and Goal of History (1953) is the source of the Axial Age Idea. It is not accepted by all historians, because for some it implies that history was somehoe being directed, or supervised, which they find unacceptable. However, according to Jaspers the period beteen from 800 to 200 B.C.E.), during which time all the fundamental creations that underlie man's current civilization came into being, plays a central, foundational or crucial role in human history. Some extend the Axial period as late at 600C.E. Following from the insights that came to him in preparing his book, Jaspers was led to realize the possibility of a political unity of the world in a 1958 work called Die Atombombe und die Zukunft des Menschen (The Future of Mankind, 1961). The aim of this political world union would not be absolute sovereignty but rather world confederation, in which the various entities could live and communicate in freedom and peace.

Jaspers was struck by the fact that so many of the great philosophers and religious leaders , including Confucius, the Buddha, Lau Tsu, Zarathustra (for the Mesopotamians), Moses flourished at roughly the same time, as if something parrallel was happening in the world, although people were unaware that similar or complimentary ideas were being developed at the same time. This period, said Jaspers, "gave birth to everything which, since then, man has been able to be." This is also the time of the great empires of antiquity (the Romans, the Macedonian, the Thracian Empires) which disseminated culture, legal frameworks and a sense of belonging to larger realities across tribal and ethnic boundaries. Jaspers saw this period as a particularly intense time of intellectual and religious development which continues to resonate in thought and society. The legacy of these great philosophers and teachers was so radical that it affected all aspects of culture, transforming consciousness itself. It was within the horizons of this form of consciousness that the great civilizations of Asia, the Middle East, and Europe developed. The ‘Classic Age’ saw the emergence of democracy in Athens, the flowering of philosophy (Socrates, Plato, Aristotle in Greece), and great artistic achievements. The ancient Olympic games saw the birth of competitive sport and of the idea that sport can help to promote generositry, understanding and international co-operation and concern for human dignity and peace . In the 18th and 19th centuries, in Europe and North America, this period was romanticized but Hippocrates and Galen still form the basis of medical science. Virgil (17 B.C.E. to 19 C.E.) spoke of a Golden Age when people had lived in utopia but also believed that there are recurrent cycles of history.