Axial Age

English

Alternative forms

• Axis Age

Etymology

Calque of German Achsenzeit, coined by German philosopher Karl Jaspers (1883–1969) in his 1949 book Vom Ursprung und Ziel der Geschichte (The Origin and Goal of History).

Proper noun

Axial Age

1. (history) The age from about the 8th to the 3rd century BCE, during which broad changes in religious and philosophical thought occurred in a variety of locations.

   The historical validity of the Axial Age is disputed.^[Wikipedia]

   • 1986, Hermann Kulke, The Historical Background of India's Axial Age, Shmuel N. Eisenstadt, The Origins and Diversity of Axial Age Civilizations, State University of New York Press, page 392,

     This rather speculative explanation of a most important characteristic feature of Axial Age civilizations might be questioned. But it remains a fact that these tensions and the social Freiraum existed in all these societies.

   • 1991, Early Judaism and Its Literature, Society of Biblical Literature, BRILL, page 102,

     According to the philosopher Karl Jaspers, the Axial Age encompassed 800-200 B.C.E., with a center at approximately 500.²⁵ Jaspers used the epithet "Axial" because this epoch heralded fundamental and revolutionary changes in human social, religious, and intellectual history.

   • 2018, Stephen K. Sanderson, Religious Evolution and the Axial Age‎^[1], Bloomsbury Publishing (Bloomsbury Academic), page 203:

     What then of the theory's relevance to the Axial Age? Because Norenzayan is interested in pre-Axial Age gods as well as those of the Axial Age, this makes the theory of limited use in explaining the kinds of gods that arose during the Axial Age.

Translations

age during which broad changes occurred in religious and philosophical thought

• French: période axiale f, ère axiale f
• German: Achsenzeit (de) f
• Italian: periodo assiale m