Is Modernity a Third Axial Age?

Abstract

In the book where he coined the term "Axial Age", Karl Jaspers noted that human history included both "tranquil ages" and "ages of change". This paper begins with the observation that this oscillation between stable and transformational periods encapsulates the pattern in complexity theory by which systems oscillate between relatively long "stable states" and shorter "phase transitions". Applying this pattern, the coauthors speculate that human history has undergone three such "axial" phase transitionsthe Neolithic Revolution, the Axial Age, and Modernity. During each of these periods, the older dominant social structures proved inadequate, as populations grew, new technologies appeared, and new social conflicts became more intense. To meet these challenges, people in the societies where these transformations occurred became more innovative, exploring new ways to use recently developed technologies and introducing a variety of social experiments. By the end of these ages of change, new social structures would become dominant across Eurasia. Today, Modernity, as the third axial age, seems to be coming to an end, making this pattern a valuable tool for understanding our world.

The ‘Original Sin’ in History: An Investigation into the Role of Iconoclasm as the Engine of Western History

“…Scholars have shown the Judeo-Christian legacies of the nineteenth-century ideologies (Eliade 1975;Gillespie 2009). Some have referred modernity as symptomatic of a new wave of the Axial Age (Baskin and Bondarenko 2019). Instead of waiting for the kingdom of god, the individual was assigned the task of creating the kingdom of god in this world, aided by the scientific facts and driven by the force of history and self-reflexive consciousness.…”