The Axial Age 2.0: Are We on the Brink of Another Intellectual Revolution?

The spiritual foundations of humanity were laid simultaneously and independently... And these are the foundations upon which humanity still subsists today. - Karl Jaspers.

The philosopher Karl Jaspers coined the term “Axial Age” to describe the period from the 8th to the 3rd century BCE. This era witnessed the emergence of major world philosophical and religious traditions, with key figures such as Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle in Greece; Buddha and various schools of Hindu philosophy in India; Confucius and Lao Tzu in China; Zoroaster in Persia; and the Hebrew prophets such as Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel. While the exact dates of some figures remain debated, their influence is clearly situated within the intellectual shifts of this era.

What makes the Axial Age so compelling is that the ideas that came out of it are still applicable to our lives. As John Vervaeke observes: "If I were to ask: Have you read anything from the Bronze Age? Have you read the Epic of Gilgamesh, or the Egyptian Book of the Dead? The Sumerian, Mesopotamian and Egyptian civilizations were colossal in their scale and influence, but most of us have not retained a direct relationship to their mythology. Alternatively, if I ask the same question of the Bible, or Plato, or the teachings of the Buddha, chances are you have read them, or at least assimilated a relationship to them. We somehow feel that these figures are relevant to us in a way that the Bronze Age figures are not. We don’t see ourselves in the Bronze Age; there is a discontinuity of identity between the kind of human beings we are now and the kind of human beings we observe in these earlier incarnations of our species.” (p. 60)

Many scholars view this era as almost mystical, questioning why such a remarkable concentration of great thinkers emerged within a relatively short time. However, in this lecture, Professor Wesley Cecil explains this historical window in a way that makes sense. Cecil explains that the shift from hunter-gatherer societies to agrarian societies, coupled with the development of cities and trade networks, led to complex social structures. These societies also struggled with questions surrounding money, foreign goods, and foreign ideas.

Cecil's observation about the connection between leisure, met needs, education, and the contemplation of profound questions is insightful. He points out that you only ask questions about meaning when you have free time, choices, and some education. This wasn't a widespread concern before the Axial Age, simply because most people didn't have those luxuries. The reason these philosophers still resonate with us is that the problems they addressed are still with us. They were among the first to consider how to live in cities, money, foreign people and ideas. Like them, we're trying to figure out how to live in a world we don't rule, where we aren't in charge, but neither are we enslaved.

Technology in our days is also bringing us back to these profound topics, as the introduction of technology did for them. For us, consider the nature of money with the arrival of Bitcoin, human nature with the idea of transhumanism, and human purpose with the prospect of job replacement by AI.

Cecil argues that the Axial Age was a pivotal point in human history. Cecil concludes that we are currently living through another axial age, facing new problems and challenges that our existing systems and structures cannot address. I am excited to see how these challenges will bring forth the best of humanity and new profound thinkers who will influence future generations.

References

Vervaeke, John; Mastropietro, Christopher. Awakening From the Meaning Crisis: Part 1: Origins. Kindle Edition

The Ancients: Axial Age. By Wes Cecil