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t and the greco roman world in a striking parallel development without any obvious admixture between these disparate cultures jaspers identified key thinkers from this age who had a profound influence on future philosophies and religions and pinpointed characteristics common to each area from which those thinkers emerged the historical validity of the axial age is disputed 2 3 4 some criticisms of jaspers include the lack of a demonstrable common denominator between the intellectual developments that are supposed to have emerged in unison across ancient greece the levant india and china lack of any radical discontinuity with preaxial and postaxial periods and exclusion of pivotal figures that do not fit the definition for example jesus muhammad and akhenaten 5 despite these criticisms the axial age continues to be an influential idea with many scholars accepting that profound changes in religious and philosophical discourse did indeed take place but disagreeing as to the underlying reasons to quote robert bellah and hans joas the notion that in significant parts of eurasia the middle centuries of the first millennium bce mark a significant transition in human cultural history and that this period can be referred to as the axial age has become widely but not universally accepted 6 origin of the concept edit jaspers introduced the concept of an axial age in his book vom ursprung und ziel der geschichte the origin and goal of history 7 published in 1949 the simultaneous appearance of thinkers and philosophers in different areas of the world had been remarked by numerous authors since the 18th century notably by the french indologist abraham hyacinthe anquetil duperron 8 jaspers explicitly cited some of these authors including victor von strauß 1859 and ernst von lasaulx 1870 8 he was unaware of the first fully nuanced theory from 1873 by john stuart stuart glennie forgotten by jaspers time and which stuart glennie termed the moral revolution 9 10 11 stuart glennie and jaspers both claimed that the axial age should be viewed as an objective empirical fact of history independently of religious considerations 12 13 jaspers argued that during the axial age the spiritual foundations of humanity were laid simultaneously and independently in china india persia judea and greece and these are the foundations upon which humanity still subsists today 14 jaspers identified a number of key thinkers as having had a profound influence on future philosophies and religions and identified characteristics common to each area from which those thinkers emerged jaspers held up this age as unique and one to which the rest of the history of human thought might be compared characteristics edit jaspers argued that the axial age gave birth to philosophy as a discipline jaspers presented his first outline of the axial age by a series of examples confucius and lao tse were living in china all the schools of chinese philosophy came into being including those of mo ti chuang tse lieh tzu and a host of others india produced the upanishads and buddha and like china ran the whole gamut of philosophical possibilities down to materialism scepticism and nihilism in iran zarathustra taught a challenging view of the world as a struggle between good and evil in ancient israel the prophets made their appearance from elijah by way of isaiah and jeremiah to deutero isaiah greece witnessed the appearance of homer of the philosophers parmenides heraclitus and plato of the tragedians of thucydides and archimedes everything implied by these names developed during these few centuries almost simultaneously in china india and the west 15 jaspers described the axial age as an interregnum between two ages of great empire a pause for liberty a deep breath bringing the most lucid consciousness 16 it has also been suggested that the axial age was a historically liminal period when old certainties had lost their validity and new ones were still not ready 17 jaspers had a particular interest in the similarities in circumstance and thought of its figures similarities included an engagement in the quest for human meaning 18 and the rise of a new élite class of religious leaders and thinkers in china india and the mediterranean 19 individual thinkers each laid spiritual foundations within a framework of a changing social environment jaspers argues that the characteristics appeared under similar political circumstances china india the middle east and the occident each comprised multiple small states engaged in internal and external struggles the three regions all gave birth to and then institutionalized a tradition of travelling scholars 20 who roamed from city to city to exchange ideas after the spring and autumn period 8th to 5th centuries bce and the warring states period 5th to 3rd centuries bce taoism and confucianism emerged in china in other regions the scholars largely developed extant religious traditions in india hinduism buddhism and jainism in persia zoroastrianism in the levant judaism and in greece sophism and other classical philosophies many of the cultures of the axial age have been 20 considered second generation societies because they developed on the basis of societies which preceded them 21 need quotation to verify 22 thinkers and movements edit in china the hundred schools of thought c 6th century bce were in contention and confucianism and taoism arose during this era and in this area it remains a profound influence on social and religious life zoroastrianism another of jaspers examples is one of the first monotheistic religions william w malandra and r c zaehner suggest that zoroaster may indeed have been an early contemporary of cyrus the great living around 550 bce 23 mary boyce and other leading scholars who once supported much earlier dates for zarathustra zoroaster have recently changed their position on when he likely lived so that there is an emerging consensus regarding him as a contemporary or near contemporary of cyrus the great 24 jainism propagated the religion of sramanas previous tirthankaras and influenced indian philosophy by propounding the principles of ahimsa non violence karma samsara and asceticism 25 mahavira 24th tirthankara in the 5th century bce 26 27 known as a fordmaker of jainism and a contemporary with the buddha lived during this age 28 29 30 buddhism also of the sramana tradition of india was another of the world s most influential philosophies founded by siddhartha gautama or the buddha who lived c 5th century bce its spread was aided by ashoka who lived late in the period rabbinic judaism accounts for its hard shift away from idolatry polytheism which was more common among biblical israelites by mythologizing the eradication of the evil inclination for idolatry which was said to occur in the early second temple period it has been argued that this development in monotheism relates to the axial shifts described by jaspers 31 jaspers axial shifts included the rise of platonism c 4th century bce and neoplatonism 3rd century ce which would later become a major influence on the western world through both christianity and secular thought throughout the middle ages and into the renaissance reception edit in addition to jaspers the philosopher eric voegelin referred to this age as the great leap of being constituting a new spiritual awakening and a shift of perception from societal to individual values 32 thinkers and teachers like the buddha pythagoras heraclitus parmenides and anaxagoras contributed to such awakenings which plato would later call anamnesis or a remembering of things forgotten citation needed david christian notes that the first universal religions appeared in the age of the first universal empires and of the first all encompassing trading networks 33 anthropologist david graeber has pointed out that the core period of jasper s axial age corresponds almost exactly to the period in which coinage was invented what s more the three parts of the world where coins were first invented were also the very parts of the world where those sages lived in fact they became the epicenters of axial age religious and philosophical creativity 34 drawing on the work of classicist richard seaford and literary theorist marc shell on the relation between coinage and early greek thought graeber argues that an understanding of the rise of markets is necessary to grasp the context in which the religious and philosophical insights of the axial age arose the ultimate effect of the introduction of coinage was he argues an ideal division of spheres of human activity that endures to this day on the one hand the market on the other religion 35 german sociologist max weber played an important role in jaspers thinking 36 37 38 shmuel eisenstadt argues in the introduction to the origins and diversity of axial age civilizations that weber s work in his the religion of china confucianism and taoism the religion of india the sociology of hinduism and buddhism and ancient judaism provided a background for the importance of the period and notes parallels with eric voegelin s order and history 19 in the same book shmuel eisenstadt analyses economic circumstances relating to the coming of the axial age in greece 39 wider acknowledgement of jaspers work came after it was presented at a conference and published in daedalus in 1975 and jaspers suggestion that the period was uniquely transformative generated important discussion among other scholars such as jóhann p árnason 38 religious historian karen armstrong explored the period in her book the great transformation 40 and the theory has been the focus of numerous academic conferences 41 in literature gore vidal in his novel creation covers much of this axial age through the fictional perspective of a persian adventurer usage of the term has expanded beyond jaspers original formulation yves lambert argues that the enlightenment was a second axial age including thinkers such as isaac newton and albert einstein wherein relationships between religion secularism and traditional thought are changing 42 a collective history of the axial age has been published in 2019 43 generally the authors contested the existence of an identifiable axial age confined to a few eurasian hotspots in the last millennium bce but tended to accept axiality as a cluster of traits emerging time and again whenever societies reached a certain threshold of scale and level of complexity besides time usage of the term has expanded beyond the original field a philosopher jaspers focused on philosophical development of the age historians hermann kulke and max ostrovsky demonstrated that the age is even more axial in historical and geopolitical senses jaspers in fact noted the tip of the iceberg pre axial cultures he wrote were dominated by the river valley civilizations while by the end of the axial age rose universal empires which dominated history for centuries since 44 with the researches of kulke and ostrovsky the whole iceberg emerged universal empires did not come by the end of the axial age the first of them persia came at the peak of the axial age and conquered mesopotamia and egypt both ceased to be civilizations in themselves and became provinces in a completely new form of imperial system which stretched from india to greece thus the bronze age civilizations were succeeded by axial civilizations with their universal empires 45 the formation of empires in the age synchronous and successive was the most intensive in world history surpassing the colonial surge 46 before forming another universal empire the chinese civilization expanded at the peak of the axial age turning the original core into country in the middle chung kuo the new geopolitical setting of china changed less in the following two millennia than it did in the axial age 47 the axial age formed two major geopolitical systems a wider china and a much vaster indo mediterranean system the two were separated from each other by tibet which limited their political and military contacts 48 49 but both systems were linked by the silk road creating a trans eurasian trade belt stretching from the pacific to the atlantic several scholars supposed ecological prime trigger for the rise of this axial belt 50 stephen sanderson researched religious evolution in the axial age arguing that religions and religious change in general are essentially biosocial adaptations to changing environments 51 ostrovsky suggests increased fertility in the rainy zones of the eurasian temperate belt 52 he regards the axial belt of civilizations as the embryo of the present global north it shifted northward during the middle ages due to climatic change and after the seafaring revolution penetrated to the temperate north america but from a historical point of view it is the same imperial belt which first appeared in the axial age 53 the validity of the concept has been called into question in 2006 diarmaid macculloch called the jaspers thesis a baggy monster which tries to bundle up all sorts of diversities over four very different civilisations only two of which had much contact with each other during the six centuries that after adjustments he eventually singled out between 800 and 200 bce 54 in 2013 another comprehensive critique appears in iain provan s book convenient myths the axial age dark green religion and the world that never was 55 see also edit ancient philosophy references edit citations edit meister chad 2009 introducing philosophy of religion abingdon routledge p 10 isbn 978 0 203 88002 9 spinney l 2019 when did societies become modern big history dashes popular idea of axial age nature 576 7786 189 190 bibcode 2019natur 576 189s doi 10 1038 d41586 019 03785 w pmid 31822841 smith a 2015 between facts and myth karl jaspers and the actuality of the axial age international journal of philosophy and theology 76 4 315 334 doi 10 1080 21692327 2015 1136794 hdl 2066 155741 mullins daniel austin hoyer daniel collins christina currie thomas feeney kevin françois pieter savage patrick e whitehouse harvey turchin peter 2018 a systematic assessment of axial age proposals using global comparative historical evidence american sociological review 83 3 596 626 doi 10 1177 0003122418772567 hdl 10871 36086 issn 0003 1224 s2cid 150014307 iain provan convenient myths the axial age dark green religion and the world that never was 2013 baylor pp 1 40 bellah robert n joas 2012 the axial age and its consequences cambridge massachusetts belknap press p 1 karl jaspers origin and goal of history routledge revivals 2011 p 2 1 2 metzler dieter 2009 achsenzeit als ereignis und geschichte axial age as happening and history pdf internet beiträge zur ägyptologie und sudanarchäologie in german 10 169 archived from the original pdf on 16 december 2013 retrieved 17 january 2018 eugene halton 2014 from the axial age to the moral revolution john stuart glennie karl jaspers and a new understanding of the idea palgrave macmil...