Axial Age Essay
Characteristics of the Axial Age
Karl Jasper defines Axial Age as, in his book “The Origin and Goal of History”, intellectual revolution that swept Eurasia from around 600 to 200 B.C.E. (Getz et al., 2008, p.136).In fact we can see a connection between this definition and the wordAxial’s origin. The word axial derives from axis and pivot, in which axis means a straight line or a center point, and pivot means turning on a defined point. I believe the straight line stands for ongoing traditions and turning point is when these traditions were questioned and started to outdate. So as people started to radically questioning old religious rituals and their universe and their own limits, it eventually led to the birth of historyand science disciplines, …show more content…
and new religious ideas.
The most prominent characteristic of this age is the people’s reasoning over myth which is referred to as logos against mythos.
Because the etchical side of the religion gained more importance after radical questioning of customs, Greeks, Indians, Chinese and Persians abandoned these mythical and polytheistic religions of their time.If we state this in Jasper’s words: “The philosophers and prophets, both of whom emerged at this time, stressed a new kind of spritituality and emphasized justice over religious form and ritual” (Getz et al., 2008, p.136).For example, in Persia, a philosopher called Zoroaster introduced monotheism to the polytheistic society when he started preaching his religion; Zoroastrianism.Here the basic belief was that there is a battle between two divine forces; good and evil. Salvation could only be earned if a person chose God over evil spirits and to choose either God or evil depended on the person’s choice. Thus Zoroastrianism emphasized the importance of personal moral choice in picking one side or the other, with a last judgment ultimately deciding the eternal fate of each person(Stearns et al., 2011, p.105).We can see that myths were no longer elucidative as they were being replaced by new religions. So people couldn’t rely on them to explain what happens in universe
either.
However, with logical thinking and observation philosophers were able to conclude that there were better explanations for natural events rather than merely divine forces. For example in greek mythology Zeus has the control of the sky so it was believed that he caused lightning or rain but through observation Thales and other Ionian thinkers knew that the reason why they occured was because of natural laws.Likewise the medical doctor, in rejecting the divine origin of the disease, laid the foundation for Western medicine (Getz et al., 2008, p. 135).The discipline of history was altered
Characteristics of the Axial Age 3
also. Rather than explaining the past with the help of divine explanation they provided more reasonable and secular explanation. For instance, instead of saying that this war was lost because some god was angry at them, historians searched for a more secular explanation like they lost the war because there weren’t many food supplies that could support the warriors.
In conclusion, Axial age was a turning point that was marked by four Eurasian societies having intellectual revolution, thus challenging old traditional explanations and finding new visions of truth. Questioning their universe and themselves, they gave more significance to ethics in religions rather than myths and they discovered to explain natural events according to the natural laws. Thus, polytheistic structure was replaced by new religions and new ways of explaining the universe and human events in the past gave birth to science and history disciplines.
.
Characteristics of the Axial Age 4
References
getz, T. (2009). Exhanges: A global history reader. (Vol. 1, p.135). getz, T. (2009). Exhanges: A global history reader. (Vol. 1, p.136). stearns, P. (2011). World civilizations: The global experience. (6th ed., Vol. 1, p. 105)
Karl Jasper defines Axial Age as, in his book “The Origin and Goal of History”, intellectual revolution that swept Eurasia from around 600 to 200 B.C.E. (Getz et al., 2008, p.136).In fact we can see a connection between this definition and the wordAxial’s origin. The word axial derives from axis and pivot, in which axis means a straight line or a center point, and pivot means turning on a defined point. I believe the straight line stands for ongoing traditions and turning point is when these traditions were questioned and started to outdate. So as people started to radically questioning old religious rituals and their universe and their own limits, it eventually led to the birth of historyand science disciplines, …show more content…
and new religious ideas.
The most prominent characteristic of this age is the people’s reasoning over myth which is referred to as logos against mythos.
Because the etchical side of the religion gained more importance after radical questioning of customs, Greeks, Indians, Chinese and Persians abandoned these mythical and polytheistic religions of their time.If we state this in Jasper’s words: “The philosophers and prophets, both of whom emerged at this time, stressed a new kind of spritituality and emphasized justice over religious form and ritual” (Getz et al., 2008, p.136).For example, in Persia, a philosopher called Zoroaster introduced monotheism to the polytheistic society when he started preaching his religion; Zoroastrianism.Here the basic belief was that there is a battle between two divine forces; good and evil. Salvation could only be earned if a person chose God over evil spirits and to choose either God or evil depended on the person’s choice. Thus Zoroastrianism emphasized the importance of personal moral choice in picking one side or the other, with a last judgment ultimately deciding the eternal fate of each person(Stearns et al., 2011, p.105).We can see that myths were no longer elucidative as they were being replaced by new religions. So people couldn’t rely on them to explain what happens in universe
either.
However, with logical thinking and observation philosophers were able to conclude that there were better explanations for natural events rather than merely divine forces. For example in greek mythology Zeus has the control of the sky so it was believed that he caused lightning or rain but through observation Thales and other Ionian thinkers knew that the reason why they occured was because of natural laws.Likewise the medical doctor, in rejecting the divine origin of the disease, laid the foundation for Western medicine (Getz et al., 2008, p. 135).The discipline of history was altered
Characteristics of the Axial Age 3
also. Rather than explaining the past with the help of divine explanation they provided more reasonable and secular explanation. For instance, instead of saying that this war was lost because some god was angry at them, historians searched for a more secular explanation like they lost the war because there weren’t many food supplies that could support the warriors.
In conclusion, Axial age was a turning point that was marked by four Eurasian societies having intellectual revolution, thus challenging old traditional explanations and finding new visions of truth. Questioning their universe and themselves, they gave more significance to ethics in religions rather than myths and they discovered to explain natural events according to the natural laws. Thus, polytheistic structure was replaced by new religions and new ways of explaining the universe and human events in the past gave birth to science and history disciplines.
.
Characteristics of the Axial Age 4
References
getz, T. (2009). Exhanges: A global history reader. (Vol. 1, p.135). getz, T. (2009). Exhanges: A global history reader. (Vol. 1, p.136). stearns, P. (2011). World civilizations: The global experience. (6th ed., Vol. 1, p. 105)