What is Axial Age?
'''Axial Age''' (also '''Axis Age''',<ref>{{Cite book|title=Introducing Philosophy of Religion|url=https://archive.org/details/introducingphilo00meis|last=Meister|first=Chad|publisher=Routledge|year=2009|isbn=0-203-88002-1|location=Abingdon|pages=[https://archive.org/details/introducingphilo00meis/page/n22 10]}}</ref> from {{Lang-de|Achsenzeit}}) is a term invented by [[Germany|German]] [[philosopher]] [[Karl Jaspers]]. It refers to [[ancient history]] from the 8th and the 3rd century BCE. He says that this time was a turning point in human history. New ways of thinking appeared in [[History of Iran|Iran]], [[History of India|India]], [[Zhou Dynasty|China]] and the [[Classical antiquity|Greco-Roman world]]. There were new [[Religion|religions]] and [[Philosophy|philosophies]]. This all happened in places across [[Eurasia]], without obvious contact between the people of these areas. == What is it == {{quote|[[Confucius]] and [[Laozi]] were living in China, all the schools of Chinese philosophy came into being, including those of [[Mo Ti]], [[Zhuang Zhou|Chuang Tse]], [[Lieh Tzu]] and ... 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 Palestine 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.|Karl Jaspers, ''Origin and Goal of History'', p. 2}} == References == {{Reflist|32em}} [[Category:History of religion]] [[Category:1st millennium BC]] [[Category:Periods and ages in history]]